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James Van Der Zee

Atlantic City

Maker

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983)

Title

Atlantic City
James Van Der Zee: Eighteen Photographs

Year

1930

Medium

  • gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • gelatin silver print

Materials

silver print

Dimensions

16.4 x 9.8 cm (6 7/16 x 3 7/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed in pencil below the image on the mat at left:XIV 23 / 75; at right:J. Van Der Zee

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

Object Number

80.232.14

Type

  • Photographs

Exhibition History

Urban America, 1930-1970
Dec 01, 2006 – Feb 25, 2007

Label copy

In the 1920s, the City of New York built an extension to its subway system, connecting downtown Manhattan to Coney Island. The extension made a day trip to the beach possible for large portions of the metropolis's population. At Coney Island, artists quickly found an intoxicating visual metaphor for the mixture of culture, class, and race in the changing urban environment. The social novelties of Coney Island take precedence for the other artists. Overlapping bodies, sometimes vulgar postures, and discordant personal encounters all intimate the loosening of behavioral and class restrictions at the city beach, a destination increasingly regarded as a place for hustlers, loose women, thieves, and sideshow freaks. In these images, people-watching is a seductive pastime for both artist and viewer.

Image use

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In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

James Van Der Zee (American, 1886-1983)
Atlantic City; James Van Der Zee: Eighteen Photographs, 1930
Gelatin silver print
16.4 x 9.8 cm (6 7/16 x 3 7/8 inches)
Museum purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts 80.232.14

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

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