A Perfect Record: the Photography of James Van Der Zee
Born at the end of the seventeenth century before photography emerged as a recognized art form, James Van Der Zee was a superb photographer credited with the most extensive photographic documentation of African American life in Harlem, where he lived and worked in his photo studio GGG.
His photographs reveal meticulously staged, theatrical settings, which served as the background to portraits of middle-class blacks. With pipes, furs and coats for props, James Van Der Zee captured the dignity and the perfection of his people.
Before the invention of photo technology, Van Der Zee used the technique of double exposure to create layered photographs. He used this technique most notably in funeral photos where a faded image of the deceased was superimposed on a regular print of the funeral ceremony.
Destitute and unrecognized until the Metropolitan Museum of Art unearthed his extraordinary preservation of Harlem’s past, Van Der Zee catapulted to fame only in 1967. In 1983, the extraordinary artist with a natural deftness for photography died at the age of 97.
