Van Vechten’s career changed course in 1913. That
February, the Armory Show introduced avant-gar-
de European painting to America. It also introduced
Van Vechten to another quarter of the New York
arts community. At this time, he became aware of
Alfred Stieglitz’s Photo-Secessionists, who urged
the acceptance of photography as an art form.
Soon thereafter, he resigned from theTimesand
returned to Paris, where that May he met Gertrude
Stein. His intimate friendship with Stein brought
him in contact with the work of photographers like
Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, and Alvin Langdon Co-
burn. Stein’s writing and her symbiotic relation-
ships with artists provided Van Vechten with a
model for his career as a writer and photographer.
Over the next several years, Van Vechten contin-
ued to write for various publications, expanding
into literary criticism and even collecting his essays
in several volumes. From 1922 to 1930, he pub-
lished seven novels, most of which were quite suc-
cessful. His novels, like his photographs, sought to
capture the personalities of New York. His best-
known book,Nigger Heaven, was the first explora-
tion by a White author of Harlem cultural life.
Although many black intellectuals bridled at the
book’s title and its primitivism, even Van Vechten’s
detractors acknowledge his vital promotion and
support of the Harlem Renaissance.
In 1928, Van Vechten’s older brother Ralph
died, leaving him a sizeable fortune. Shortly there-
after, the caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias intro-
duced him to the Leica, the first successful 35 mm
camera. Freed from the need to support himself by
writing fiction and intrigued by the possibilities of
the Leica, Van Vechten soon abandoned literature
and devoted the rest of his life to photography.
Starting in 1932, at age 52, Van Vechten invited ac-
quaintances in the arts to pose for him. For the rest
of his life he chose his own subjects and never
worked for hire.
As Van Vechten was himself a well-known writer
and critic, he approached his subjects as a peer and
an insider. His friendships with his subjects afforded
him an understanding of their personalities, an inti-
macy rarely seen in celebrity photographs. He pre-
served this intimacy by keeping his portraits simple,
avoiding elaborate costumes and special effects.
Occasionally he would incorporate an elaborate
backdrop or a prop; sometimes he would use raking
light, but little more. Sometimes he would draw out
his subjects by having them narrate their life stories
as he photographed them; Billie Holiday’s story
moved him to tears. Elsewhere, he tried to return
them to happier times in their lives, as he did—with
only partial success—with Bessie Smith.
From very early in his career as a photographer,
Van Vechten realized the value of his work to histo-
rians and scholars. A large percentage of his work
depicts prominent African-Americans; some of
these portraits, like those of Nella Larsen and Zora
Neale Hurston, are among the only extant images of
these important writers. He conferred on African-
American artists and intellectuals a formal dignity
that others reserved for political and commercial
leaders. By preserving the personalities of African-
American culture, he sought to encourage the future
study and appreciation of their deeds. To this end,
he established many large collections of photo-
graphs, literature, and art at Yale University, Fisk
University, the New York Public Library, and sev-
eral other institutions across the United States.
From beginning to end, Van Vechten’s career is
remarkable for its consistency: almost all of his
photographs were black-and-white portraits of ce-
lebrities. He was not known for technical or artistic
innovations, nor was he the first photographer to
specialize in celebrities. Within his narrow range,
though, Van Vechten produced remarkable ima-
ges that memorialized his subjects and evoked
their personalities.
JustinPittas-Giroux
Seealso:PortraitureBiography
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 17 June 1880. Attended the
UniversityofChicago,1899–1903;earnedbachelorofphi-
losophy degree. Reporter forChicago American, 1903–
1906; music, theater, and dance critic forThe New York
Times, 1906–1913; essayist and novelist, 1915–1932; ama-
teurphotographer,1932–1964.HonoraryDoctorate,Fisk
University, 1955. Died in New York City, 21 December
1964.Individual Exhibitions
1980 Carl Van Vechten: 17 June 1880–17 June 1980: A Cen-
tenary Exhibition of Some of His Gifts to Yale; Yale Uni-
versity, New Haven, Connecticut
1981 Portraits by Carl Van Vechten: A Photographic Exhi-
bition; The Carl Van Vechten Museum of Fine Arts, Fisk
University, Nashville, Tennessee
1995 The Passionate Observer: Photographs by Carl Van Vech-
ten; traveling exhibition sponsored by HallmarkVAN VECHTEN, CARL