VanDerZee: Photographer 1886-1983 Deborah Willis-Braithwaite 1998 Softcover Book

Up for grabs (1) VanDerZee: Photographer, 1886-1983 by Deborah Willis-Braithwaite. One of the great American photographers of the 20th century and the leading African-American photographer of his day, James VanDerZee is best remembered as the eyes of the Harlem Renaissance. Reproduced here are many of the thousands of photographs he took in New York's Harlem between the wars. 200 photos. VanDerZee was the first 20th-century African American photographer to achieve commercial success and fame. Between the wars, he ran a photography studio in Harlem, where he documented the famous and the everyday of the Harlem Renaissance more thoroughly than any other photographer. Thanks to the inclusion of some of his images in the 1969 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition "Harlem on My Mind," he was rediscovered at age 83, living in poverty in Harlem. Before he died, he again took up the camera to photograph many prominent African Americans, including Muhammad Ali, Romare Bearden, and Bill Cosby.