JAMES VAN DER ZEE James Van Der Zee (June 29, 1886 - May 15, 1983) was an African-American photographer.. He was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Aside from the artistic merits of his work, Van Der Zee produced the most comprehensive documentation of the period. Among his most famous subjects during this time were Marcus Garvey, Bill Bojangles Robinson and Countee Cullen. In 1916 Van Der Zee and his second wife, Gaynella Greenlee, launched the Guarantee Photo Studio in Harlem. His business boomed during World War I, and the portraits he shot from this period until 1945 have demanded the majority of critical attention. Among his many renowned subjects were poet Countee Cullen, dancer Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson, and black-nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. James worked predominantly in the studio and used a variety of props, including architectural elements, backdrops, and costumes, to achieve stylized tableaux vivants in keeping with late Victorian and Edwardian visual traditions. Sitters often copied celebrities of the 1920s and 1930s in their poses and expressions, and he retouched negatives and prints heavily to achieve an aura of glamour. Van Der Zee also created funeral photographs between the wars. These works were collected in The Harlem Book of the Dead (1978), with a foreword by Toni Morrison. Works by Van Der Zee are artistic as well as technically proficient. His work was in high demand, in part due to his experimentation and skill in double exposures and in retouching negatives of children. One theme that recurs in his photographs was the emergent black middle class, which he captured using traditional techniques in often idealistic images. Negatives were retouched to show glamour and an aura of perfection. This affected the likeness of the person photographed, but he felt each photo should transcend the subject. His carefully posed family portraits reveal that the family unit was an important aspect of Van Der Zees life. I tried to see that every picture was better-looking than the person. I had one woman come to me and say Mr.Van Der Zee my friends tell thats a nice picture, But it doesnt look like you. That was my style. Said Van Der Zee. Van Der Zee sometimes combined several photos in one image, for example by adding a ghostly child to an image of a wedding to suggest the couples future, or by superimposing a funeral image upon a photograph of a dead woman to give the feeling of her eerie presence. Van Der Zee said, I wanted to make the camera take what I thought should be there. biography/people/james-van-der-zee-9515411 americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=6593 britannica/EBchecked/topic/622664/James-VanDerZee
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:26:50 +0000