James Van Der Zee: A Portrait of Harlem
Photographer James Van Der Zee created an extraordinary chronicle of life in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s and beyond. Residents of this majority Black neighborhood in New York City turned to Van Der Zee and his camera to mark special occasions. His carefully composed, cosmopolitan photographs conveyed the personalities, aspirations, and spirit of his sitters.
Some 40 works from the National Gallery’s collection feature Van Der Zee’s studio portraits, along with his photographs of Harlem nightclubs and storefronts as well as religious, social, political, and athletic community groups. Together they provide a glimpse into Harlem’s rich social life as it became an influential center of American culture during the Harlem Renaissance.
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The exhibition is curated by Diane Waggoner, curator of 19th-century photographs.
About the Author
James Augustus Van Der Zee (June 29, 1886 – May 15, 1983) 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 at 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 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: A Portrait of Harlem
until May 30, 2022.
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC – United States
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