| Names: | Other: James VanDerZee
Other: James Vanderzee
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| | Dates: | 1886, 29 June - 1983 | | Born: | US, MA, Lenox | | Active: | US |
His most notable work relates to the portraits he took of African-Americans in Harlem between 1916 and 1969.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance. Self-taught, he opened his Guarantee Photo Studio on famed 125th street in Harlem in 1917 making artistic studio portraits that celebrate Harlem’s emergent black middle class. He used ornate furniture, painted backdrops, and props to stage his portraits, posing each sitter "… in such a way that the picture would tell a story." His signature style often included retouching the final image with color and the use of photomontage. The official photographer to Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association, he photographed church functions, parades, and funerals, providing a valuable document of the vibrant life of African Americans in Harlem. After the war, Van Der Zee struggled to make a living and it was only in 1967, when The Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted the controversial exhibit Harlem on My Mind, that renewed interest in his work refueled his career.
(Author: Garie Waltzer - Photographer and consultant)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
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Family history
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The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.532, 533
• Evans, Martin Marix (Executive ed.) 1995 Contemporary Photographers [Third Edition] (St. James Press - An International Thomson Publishing Company) [Expensive reference work but highly informative.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.261-262 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
• Sobieszek, Robert A. and Deborah Irmas 1994 the camera i: Photographic Self-Portraits (Los Angeles: LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art) p.235, Plate 25 [When the Audrey and Sydney Irmas collection was donated to LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1992 the museum gained a remarkable collection of self portraits of notable photographers. If you need a portrait of James Van der Zee this is a useful starting point.]
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Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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Library of Congress, Washington, USA
Approximate number of records: 10
Note: A single record may contain more than one photograph. | Click here |
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