VanDerZee, James

VanDerZee, James (Augustus Joseph)

(born June 29, 1886, Lenox, Mass., U.S.—died May 15, 1983, Washington, D.C.) U.S. photographer. By 1906 he had moved with his family to Harlem in New York City. After a brief stint at a portrait studio in Newark, N.J., he returned to Harlem to set up his own studio. The portraits he took from 1918 to 1945 chronicled the Harlem Renaissance; among his many renowned subjects were Countee Cullen, Bill Robinson, and Marcus Garvey. After World War II his fortunes declined until the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited his photographs in 1969.

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VanDerZee, James (1886–1983) photographer; born in Lenox, Mass. After attending the public schools in Lenox, he went to New York City about 1906 and held a series of jobs as a waiter and elevator operator. Between 1909 and 1915, he played in Fletcher Henderson's band and the John Wanamaker Orchestra (and in an orchestra that accompanied silent movies). Attracted to photography, he got a job as a darkroom assistant, and after learning the fundamentals of photography he opened his own studio in Harlem in 1916. On the upper end of Manhattan, Harlem was only then becoming a haven for African-Americans and during the next fives decades he would photograph African-Americans of all social classes and occupations. He took thousands of pictures—mostly indoor portraits, although he occasionally went out and photographed the Harlem scene. Although he photographed many of the African-American celebrities who passed through Harlem, most of his work was of the straightforward commercial studio variety—weddings and funerals (including pictures of the dead for grieving families), family groups, teams, lodges, clubs, people simply wanting to have a record of themselves in fine clothes. He often supplied props or costumes and in his developing—which he did himself—he would add pictorial touches with an air brush or double-printed images. Forgotten for many years, he had retired and was reduced to poverty when in 1969 the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted an exhibit called Harlem on My Mind that brought him and his work renewed attention and rewards. He took up photography again in 1980 until his death.