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The author of Invisible Man (1952), one of the most important American novels of the postwar period, Ralph Ellison also worked briefly as a photographer while living in Harlem in the 1940s. He spent a great deal of time photographing around New York City, capturing everyday moments such as this car accident scene. These images had a profound influence on his writing, which was celebrated for its stark depiction of America’s racial divisions. In 1956, in a letter asking fellow writer Albert Murray for advice on purchasing new camera equipment, Ellison quipped, “You know me, I have to have something between me and reality when I’m dealing with it most intensely.”