Ruth Leon recommends… James van der Zee archive – Photographs of Black Life

James van der Zee archive – Photographs of Black Life

 The Met has acquired an amazing archive of some 30,000 photographs which collectively represent the life’s work of the Harlem Renaissance photographer James van der Zee. These wonderful photographs give an unprecedented view of the riches of life in New York’s Harlem, beginning in 1910.

Illuminating the collection is this conversation between Jeff L. Rosenheim, The Met’s Curator in Charge of Photographs, and Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum. This is a landmark collaborative initiative to research, conserve, and provide full public access to the remarkable catalogue of photographs by James Van Der Zee (1886–1983).

The world-renowned chronicler of Black life in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance and for decades thereafter, Van Der Zee was a virtuoso portraitist and one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century. The archive will comprise approximately 20,000 prints made in his lifetime, 30,000 negatives, studio equipment, and ephemera.

The James Van Der Zee Archive is the third archive of an American photographer to be acquired by The Met which also acquired the archives of the photographers, Walker Evans and Diane Arbus, in 1994 and 2007, respectively.

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