| The six members of the Alpha Phi Alpha basketball team are arranged in an
arc of perfect symmetry on the steps of their Harlem fraternity house. The
player
in front sits forward with great poise, his hands holding the ball as if ready
to shoot it through the hoop, his slight smile cocked and ready, eyes looking
straight into the photographer’s lens. The rest of the team is arrayed
in a semicircle around the front figure, arms crossed, eyes forward, feet positioned
just so. The light comes from the side in this outdoor portrait, illuminating
the team and their three hovering coaches in crystalline clarity before the
fraternity flag pinned across their shadowed doorway. Even the lines on the
basketball are
positioned to be perfectly parallel with the steps. The tough head coach, cigar
to one side, looks at James VanDerZee in all seriousness, as if his one dream
is for his team to play with the practiced balance of such a great photographer.
Swish. . . .
:: Philip Brookman, Director of Curatorial Affairs
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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:: The Curator's Journals Project
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