James Van Der Zee Quotes (Images)

James Van Der Zee was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, USA. He was an African-American photographer best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers. He was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1915, he moved to Newark, N.J., where he took a job in a portrait studio, first as a darkroom assistant and then as a portraitist. He also created funeral photographs between the wars. These works were later collected in The Harlem Book of the Dead, with a foreword by Toni Morrison. Among his most famous subjects during this time were Marcus Garvey, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Countee Cullen.