James Van Der Zee photographs Eubie Blake: Museum Object and Cultural History
James Van Der Zee photographs Eubie Blake: Date: 1981. Photograph by: John Loengard, American, born 1934. Subject of: Eubie Blake, American, 1887 - 1983.
The object in the museum catalogue
This gelatin silver print depicts a crowded room of bystanders, lined along the left and right sides of the frame, observing and capturing the process of the centrally placed photographer, James Van Der Zee, as he photographs Eubie Blake. The central point of focus in the image is Eubie Blake who remains seated in the glow of deliberately placed studio lighting fixtures in front of a backdrop used to create the illusion of an elaborate interior room. Van Der Zee sits on a stool in the foreground of the image, mostly in silhouette, with his PL arm reaching to adjust the standing camera just left of the center of the image. A woman, Van Der Zee's wife Donna Mussenden Van Der Zee, stands behind Van Der Zee's camera to assist his process and is slightly out of focus.
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date: 1981
- Photograph by: John Loengard, American, born 1934
- Subject of: Eubie Blake, American, 1887 - 1983
- Subject of: James Van Der Zee, American, 1886 - 1983
- Subject of: The Van der Zee Foundation, American
- Type: gelatin silver prints
- Medium: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
- Dimensions: H x W (sheet): 16 × 19 7/8 in. (40.6 × 50.5 cm)
- Dimensions: H x W (image): 11 11/16 × 17 7/8 in. (29.7 × 45.4 cm)
- Topic: African American
- Topic: Jazz (Music)
- Topic: Photography
- Topic: U.S. History, 1969-2001
- Object number: 2014.166.8
- Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © John Loengard Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
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