James VanDerZee

James VanDerZee was a self-taught photographer. He purchased his first camera in 1899, moved to Harlem in 1905 and opened a photo studio in 1916. During the 1920s and 1930s he became an important documenter of the Harlem Renaissance and the Afro-American community of the town. His career declined after the war and his work was only rediscovered in the late sixties.