Gorgeous vintage wedding photos

James Van Der Zee was an African-American photographer who was best known for his portraits of black New Yorkers during the Harlem Renaissance, with a theme of the emerging black middle-class. [Thanks, Wikipedia] Here are some photos that he took of affluent weddings.


Van Der Zee was an experimenter. Here you can see the ghostly image of a child next to the newlyweds "to suggest the couple's future". The couple is cute, but they look really (really) young, and she is wearing a shower cap. Oh, fashion!



An obviously-wealthy wedding party from 1926.


Another example of Van Der Zee's experiments - if you view the larger version of the photo you can see that he's added a touch of color to make the photo more romantic. Love the cloud of tulle and silk that she's standing in.

James Van Der Zee's work is new to me, and I'm in love! I always like vintage photographs, but I think his are especially exciting because he was forging new ground with his style and his subjects.

-Kay

Originally found on My2SecondShelfLife - thanks!