By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 5, 2007

The photo of a black man and black woman in matching raccoon coats, posing with a Cadillac roadster, whitewall tires, convertible top. Car door wide open. The woman in polished pumps on the street, the man inside waiting, seemingly only for a moment. The car gleams and the 1932 photo captures Harlem.

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A wedding photo of a young couple, the bride looking like a child in long white lace, white roses. And at their feet another photo is overlaid, a transparent image of a little girl playing with a black doll. The groom, hair swept back, top hat on knee, looks at his bride, who sits turned to the right, head left, on a grand, ornate chair. She is not smiling.

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Marcus Garvey in a parade in 1924. The New York Black Yankees in 1934. Jack Johnson signing a contract for an appearance at the Apollo Theater. Black beauty queens with movie star looks. Dancers with corsages. The Barefoot Prophet captured barefoot in thought. Men in tuxedos. Dreamy women in dreamy pearls and fur-trimmed brocade dresses. All black and beautiful.

It would have been cool to have been there. On Lenox Avenue in New York, watching as Harlem was born anew. Not knowing that what you were watching would come to be called the Harlem Renaissance, a time when the "Negro was in vogue," as poet Langston Hughes said. When cool black cats who had money dressed in pinstripes and top hats and carried canes, and black women walked the fine lines of dignity in thin stockings. And art, music and literature had an ever-increasing infusion of soul.

It was an era of prosperity, caught on film by James VanDerZee, whose photos taken over his 80-year career will be on display today during the eighth annual Prince George's County Harlem Renaissance Festival, a free family celebration of musical and artistic contributions "by people of color to American life." Prince George's is the wealthiest black-majority county in America, and some say it is going through a renaissance of its own. The festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kentland/Columbia Park Community Center in Landover, will include performances by singers, dancers, musicians and poets to showcase the contributions of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural and social revival of Harlem during the 1920s.

The VanDerZee photos are the highlight of the festival, organizers say, providing vivid windows into the era. Giving a glimpse of what it would have been like to have been there.

VanDerZee died in 1983 at the age of 97. He has been called the first great African American photographer of the 20th century, famous for his photos of Harlem. Black Harlem. Portraits of children, and brides and grooms, and singers, dancers, writers, boxers, celebrities and politicians. Dinner parties, society ladies, baptism celebrations, family portraits, students in convent schools holding black baby dolls. White-tablecloth dinner parties with elegantly dressed people, champagne glasses raised.

"His studio was located on Lenox Avenue, one of the main avenues in Harlem. All the parades, the funerals, the special events held by the Masons, the Elks, the fraternal groups, they happened along Lenox Avenue," his widow, Donna Mussenden VanDerZee, said by telephone from New York. "He took photos day and night. If you were going to a party and you wanted to have a photograph before you went to that ball, you could get your photo taken by VanDerZee.

"Harlem was an exciting area. Everything was happening in Harlem. The music, the dance, the excitement was right there. I don't think he believed he thought he was influencing the Renaissance. But in retrospect, without his photographs, we wouldn't know what it was like. The writers wrote about it. But because of VanDerZee's work, we could see the way people lived at the time. Because he photographed people inside their homes. Outside in the street."

He changed the way African American people were portrayed in photos, their lives and lifestyles, expressions of wealth captured by his lens. Capturing "the New Negro" reality with his camera and adding a few touches when needed. Retouching the myth of the African American. Creating a contrast to crude caricatures. Creating what today we celebrate and emulate in Landover as the Harlem Renaissance. It ended a long time ago, but it keeps on going.