James Vanderzee 55

by Kobena Mercer

JAMES VANDERZEE (1886-1983) was Harlem's leading photographer from 1916 onwards when he opened his studio Guarantee Photos. VanDerZee's photo-graphic range was wide - he made portraits and photographed weddings and public events - and it was this hybrid style which attracted the attention of photo-graphic audiences in the 1990s. Many of his works were featured in the important 1969 exhibition of African-American art 'Harlem on my Mind' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

Kobena Mercer is a writer and critic living in London. He is the editor of Pop Art and Vernacular Cultures, Cosmopolitan Modernisms, and Discrepant Abstraction (all published by The MIT Press and inIVA), author of Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies, and an inaugural recipient of the Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing, presented by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.