Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was an American writer and photographer. A chronicler and promoter of artists who were major figures in the Harlem Renaissance, Van Vechten settled in NYC in 1906 and was hired as music critic at The New York Times. Between 1922 and 1930 he published seven novels. In the 1930s he discovered the Leica camera and began taking celebrity portraits, most often in his Central Park West studio. He was a prolific darkroom worker and printed all his own work, sometimes with the help of an assistant. The body of his work comprises an impressive cultural legacy documenting the American art scene from the 1930s through the 1960s. He also achieved note as the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.
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