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Britannica Hong Kong > Encyclopedia Categories > Art > VanDerZee, James (Augustus Joseph)

VanDerZee, James (Augustus Joseph)

(born June 29, 1886, Lenox, Mass., U.S.—died May 15, 1983, Washington, D.C.) U.S. photographer. By 1906 he had moved with his family to Harlem in New York City. After a brief stint at a portrait studio in Newark, N.J., he returned to Harlem to set up his own studio. The portraits he took from 1918 to 1945 chronicled the Harlem Renaissance; among his many renowned subjects were Countee Cullen, Bill Robinson, and Marcus Garvey. After World War II his fortunes declined until the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited his photographs in 1969.

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