Leslie Schenk (1926–2010), photographer
James Baldwin in Paris
Gelatin silver print, ca. 1949
James Baldwin Photograph Collection, Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
James Baldwin in Paris
On November 11, 1948, 24-year-old James Baldwin said goodbye to his family in Harlem and, with a duffle bag full of his unfinished writings, boarded a flight to Paris. This photograph, taken by an American friend, was likely from within a year of his arrival in the French capital.
Baldwin’s expatriation followed a generations-long tradition of Black American artists and intellectuals seeking refuge in Paris from the overt bigotries they encountered at home. For Baldwin, it was also an escape from painful personal struggles. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to me in France,” he later explained, “but I knew what was going to happen to me in New York. If I had stayed there, I would have gone under…”
: Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Currently on View at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
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