![]() ![]() ![]() Known mainly for his exquisite studio portraits and unique retouching techniques, VanDerZee (1886 – 1983) not only documented, but articulated, life in Harlem during and beyond the famed Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.īefore cameras and film became widely accessible to the average American, studios like VanDerZee’s provided the very few photographs that would be made of a person in their lifetime - and in some cases, after their death. If one were to ask the foremost contemporary black photographers to name their biggest influence, it is likely that they would answer with the same name: “VanDerZee.” In Through A Lens Darkly, a new documentary by filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris that traces the history of African American photography, artists Hank Willis Thomas, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza and others discuss James VanDerZee’s impact on both black photography and, perhaps more importantly, identity. ![]()
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