Artist+4


 * VanDerZee’s other interest was photography. At the age of fourteen he received his first camera as a result of a magazine promotion. His interest in photography led him to take hundreds of photographs of his family and the town of Lenox. As one of the first people in the town to own a camera he was able to provide a rich early documentation of community life in small town New England. As always VanDerZee’s photography incorporated his own distinctive flair. **


 * By the early 1930s VanDerZee’s income from his photography work declined partly because of the strained economic circumstances of many of his customers and partly because the growing popularity of personal cameras reduced the need for professional photography. VanDerZee responded by shooting passport photos, doing photo restorations, and taking other miscellaneous photography jobs, an approach he would employ for over two decades. **

**In 1967 James VanDerZee’s work was rediscovered by photographers and photo-historians and he then received attention far beyond his Harlem community. VanDerZee came out of retirement to photograph celebrities who in turn promoted his work in exhibits around the nation. His images were also the subject of books and documentaries. **


 * James VanDerZee died in Washington, D.C. on May 15, 1983. Ten years later the National Portrait Gallery exhibited his work as a posthumous tribute to his remarkable genius. **

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