James Van Der Zee
(American, 1886–1983)
Biography
James Van Der Zee was an African-American photographer known for his distinctive portraits from the Harlem Renaissance. The artist used photography as a means not only to celebrate black culture but also provided his sitter’s with a feeling of pride. “It's a hard job to get the camera to see it like you see it. Sometimes you have it just the way you want it, and then you look in the camera and you don't have the balance,” he once said. “The main thing is to get the camera to see it the way you see it.” Born on June 29, 1886 in Lenox, MA, he began making photographs with a pinhole camera as a teenager. Moving to New York around 1909, he worked as a darkroom clerk at a small department store for a number of years before opening his own studio in Harlem. Over the next four decades, Van Der Zee captured the inhabitants of Harlem, including weddings, schoolchildren, and parades organized by Marcus Garvey. The artist died at the age of 96, on May 15, 1983 in Washington, D.C. Today, his photographs are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among others.
James Van Der Zee Artworks
James Van Der Zee
(286 results)
.jpg "Untitled (Portrait of a Woman), 1928")
English (US)
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