James VanDerZee, American, 1886-1983 Famous for his images of Harlem and its inhabitants, James VanDerZee was born in Lenox, Massachusetts. During his youth, he took portraits of family members and friends, and after various jobs in Lenox and New York City began work in 1911 as a photographic assistant in the portrait studio run by Charles Gertz in Hahne's department store in Newark, New Jersey.