JAMES VAN DERZEE: The Picture-Takin' Man

by Jim Haskins ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 1979

A direct, respectful, surprisingly readable biography of the obscure Harlem studio-photographer, now in his nineties, who was suddenly projected into prominence by the 1968 ""Harlem on My Mind"" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. Most laudably, Haskins neither idealizes Van DerZee nor casts him as a black role-model. Rather, he presents him squarely as the product of a secure, supportive, Lenox, Mass., upbringing (not unaware of his place economically or racially) who for years drifted in and out of elevator-operator jobs and such while hoping to catch on as a musician. Though he'd started taking pictures as a boy (with one of the first two cameras in Lenox), it wasn't until 1915, with the encouragement of his second wife, that he made photography a full-time career. Then, during the so-called Harlem Renaissance of 1920-35 (a white-fostered phenomenon, Haskins acidulously observes), he photographed the literary and theatrical limelighters and the flamboyant doings of black-nationalist Marcus Garvey--but without taking any particular stock of any of them: as he put it, ""he made his pictures and left."" At the same time, he was recording the ""other Harlem"" of weddings and funerals, barber shops and drug stores--the sedate existence of the middle class. And he was improvising: the self-styled ""Artist and Photographer"" was more interested, always, in arranging his subjects--and retouching his negatives--than in the actual picture-taking (a bent Haskins places in the context of photographic history). Sometimes, too, be arranged his subjects in little genre groupings (e.g., the fond parents and the piano-playing tots), sometimes he printed multiple images--in the most famous instance, of a young girl hovering over the casket at her funeral. (All, of course, are represented here.) But in time business fell off. On the eve of the landmark exhibit, the Van DerZees lost their home and shop, and the faithful Gaynella suffered a breakdown and died without fully recovering. His acclaim, says Van DerZee, was ""too much, too late."" But he lives, without bitterness or loss of interest, on his intermittent income and ""meals on wheels""--a lesson in gracious longevity that adds still another facet to this staunchly true-to-life book.

Pub Date: May 21, 1979

ISBN: 0865432619

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION