Roy DeCarava (1919-2009). Five Men, 1956. Photogravure from Twelve Photographs Portfolio published by Renaissance Press, 1991.

This moment occurred during a memorial service for the children killed in a church in Birmingham Alabama in 1964. The photograph shows the men coming out of the service at a church in Harlem. The men were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense that I responded, and the image was made. DeCarava explained his feelings when taking the image: The motivation at that moment was my political understanding of the treatment of black people and their response to injustice… I wasn’t at the bombing, I wasn’t in the church, but I knew what it was and I wanted to make a picture that dealt with it. The men were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense, and the image was made. – RD