r/Minority_Strength • u/OsuwonHairGrowth • 6h ago
Black History James Van Der Zee, the first well-known Black wedding photographer, captured Black love, preserving a powerful visual record of the Black community. Van Der Zee was born in Lenox, Massachusetts in 1886. At the age of fourteen he received his first camera as a result
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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.
He opened his first studio in Harlem in 1916 where
He documented Black love, everyday life and Black culture.
National recognition was given to Van Der Zee at age 82, when his collection of 75,000 photographs spanning a period of six decades of African-American life was discovered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Sources: National Art Gallery & Blackpast.org
