Research 1: Photographers

 

James Van Der Zee

(1886 - 1983) 

 

Born in Massachusetts, James Van Der Zee, was an African-American photographer who was most known for his photographies of the daily lives of black New-Yorkers. He would use double exposures and retouch negatives to perform a sort of "glow-up" of his subject to give them an aura of magnificence. It is in 1969 that he gained worldwide recognition when he was featured in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Harlem on My Mind exhibit. Van Der Zee was a critically acclaimed and accomplished photographer who was able to document the reality of his times.

                                    

Vivian Maier

(1926 - 2009)

 

Vivian Maier was an American photographer whose work unfortunetaly only got recognized after her death when a blog post on Flickr featuring her photographies became a viral sensation. Most of the time, her subjects consisted of people in the streets of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. She also enjoyed self-photography using reflective surfaces such as mirrors and windows. A large majority of her pictures were in black and white  before she decided to finally switch to colour later on.