Bed-Stuy Photographer's Work Chosen For LinkNYC Black History Month

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — If you see a young girl on a LinkNYC kiosk, wearing a blue jacket over a white dress, that's Eurila Cave.

Her late father, photographer Robert Cave, took the picture, as well as many others on display at LinkNYC kiosks across the city.

The images are a collaboration with the Black Archives for Black History Month, and will feature Cave's father's archive — images documenting the culture, politics and communities of New York, and personal family images — taken between the 1970s to the 1990s.

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Cave said her father taught her from a very early age the importance of documentation, memory, legacy and how photography can serve as a way to share perspectives.

"Sometimes those are the only things really left behind of us," she told Patch.

"We might not have material items," Cave said, "but our images, if we're lucky to have them and have them made well, can carry us."

Cave followed in her father's footsteps and is now a professional photographer as well, doing portraits and events like her dad did years ago.

At events her father photographed, Cave said, he would set up a little darkroom to develop film and make prints for people to take home before the evening ended.

"People said he was a genius," Cave said. "He was a major chemistry geek."

" He said he got paid more from people trying to keep the images from being printed," Cave said, "from people who were maybe with people they weren't supposed to be with."

Armed with an Olympus OM-1, Cave's father found photography as a way to connect with his interests in politics and jazz music, a theme plainly visible in his work.

Years ago, Cave's brother found a huge collection of their father's work at a relative's home and began to scan and share the images, which, in addition to Cave's professional work, featured a vibrant archive of everyday Black life.

Cave's archive caught the attention of Renata Cherlise, who operates the Black Archives, a multimedia platform which seeks to share ordinary Black life with a larger culture to present a "dynamic accessibility to a Black past, present, and future," according to the website.

"We're hoping to shine a light on the Black experience," Cherlise told Patch from Atlanta, "through the decades and through generations."

The Black Archives started in 2015 as a Tumblr blog, and then an Instagram account — which is how LinkNYC first connected with her in 2020, wondering if she would be interested in a collaboration for Black History Month.

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This year will be the fourth time Cherlise has helped bring Black family archives from New York City to LinkNYC kiosks around the Big Apple.

And this year, Cherlise included the work of Robert Cave.

"I was immediately blown away," Cherlise said of when she saw his work, "because, number one: it was a Black photographer that I wasn't familiar with."

"The photographs he took just felt so good," Cherlise said, "and I was so happy to include them this year."

Cherlise's work with the Black Archives, now her full-time job, shares a lot in common with Robert Cave's photography: the elevation and vibrancy of ordinary Black life, the importance of documentation and keeping a personal archive to serve as your story to share.

And next week, Cherlise is debuting a first-ever book featuring work curated by the Black Archives.

"We're spotlighting and honoring black family archives, snapshots and ordinary black life. And so that was special to me, because these types of photographs are really intimate," she said.

When Cave saw her father's image of her shared on the LinkNYC Instagram page, she felt her father's lessons about legacy, memory and family come full circle.

"I was just like: 'my dad would be so proud,'" she said.