James Van Der Zee

African-American Harlem Renaissance Photographer, 1886-1983

June 29
On this date, James Van Der Zee was born in 1886. He was an African-American photographer whose portraits of Black New Yorkers chronicled the Harlem Renaissance.

The discovery of his archived prints and negatives in 1967 led to widespread interest in his work. James Augustus Joseph Vander Zee was from Lenox, Massachusetts. He shot his first photographs as a boy in Lenox. By 1906, he had moved with his father and brother to Harlem in New York City, working as a waiter and elevator operator. In 1915, Van Der Zee moved to Newark, N.J., where he had taken a job in a portrait studio, first as a darkroom assistant, and then as a portraitist.

Links
African American Registry

Photographer James Van Der Zee

Drop Me off in Harlem

Works

Alpha Phi Alpha Basket Ball Team