James Van Der Zee was an African American photographer best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers. He was a leading figure in the
Harlem Renaissance.
James Van Der Zee was born June 29th 1886 in Lenox, Massachusetts. His parents were John and Elizabeth Van Der Zee. James was the second of six children. As a child he learned piano, violin, and art. Van Der Zee received his first camera at the age of 14. His interest with the toy camera led him to getting a slightly better camera with which he took hundreds of photographs of the town and his family. He was only the second person in Lenox to own a camera. This early start led him to a vast and prolific career documenting each decade in his unique style.
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By the age of 29 Van Der Zee moved to New York. He worked as a dark room technician at Gertz Department Store in Newark, New Jersey. He substituted as a photographer when his employer was unavailable. This encouraged him to open his own studio called Guarantee Photography. In 1932, he outgrew his first studio and went on to open the larger GGG Studio, with his second wife as his assistant. Many visual techniques were employed using props, architecture and costumes in the tradition of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. So much time was taken in posing his subjects that most of the time he could only do three shoots a day.
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Van Der Zee sometimes combined several photos in one image in order to present the scene as he thought it should have been. He did not limit himself to the studio, and photographed street scenes, funerals, parades, and children. National recognition was given to him at age 82, when his collection of 75,000 photographs spanning a period of six decades of African-American life was discovered by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
James Van Der Zee was born June 29th 1886 in Lenox, Massachusetts. His parents were John and Elizabeth Van Der Zee. James was the second of six children. As a child he learned piano, violin, and art. Van Der Zee received his first camera at the age of 14. His interest with the toy camera led him to getting a slightly better camera with which he took hundreds of photographs of the town and his family. He was only the second person in Lenox to own a camera. This early start led him to a vast and prolific career documenting each decade in his unique style.
By the age of 29 Van Der Zee moved to New York. He worked as a dark room technician at Gertz Department Store in Newark, New Jersey. He substituted as a photographer when his employer was unavailable. This encouraged him to open his own studio called Guarantee Photography. In 1932, he outgrew his first studio and went on to open the larger GGG Studio, with his second wife as his assistant. Many visual techniques were employed using props, architecture and costumes in the tradition of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. So much time was taken in posing his subjects that most of the time he could only do three shoots a day.
