feature: harlem, in retrospect – the work of carl van vechten

Explore the work of artistic photographer Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964). After moving to New York in 1906, Vechten (originally from the midwest and White) took a job as a music and dance critic for the New York Times and was instantly drawn to the nightclubs of Harlem – leading to a keen interest in the African American community and later his patronage of the Harlem Renaissance. His photographs not only document the African American experience and the artistic explosion that erupted in Harlem post World War I, but were the first to do it in color – capturing some of the renaissance’s most famous luminaries. Check out his work, below.

By Alexander Aplerku, AFROPUNK Contributor

Harry Belafonte, 1954.

Ella Fitzgerald, 1940.

James Baldwin, 1955.

Joyce Bryant, 1953.

Langston Hughes, 1942.

Pearl Bailey.

Alvin Ailey, 1955.

Zora Neale Hurston, 1940.