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The Photographer

1942
Not on view
In this work, the artist positions the viewer along a busy street in Harlem, which is bustling with activity. A construction worker descends into a manhole. A finely dressed businessman with a briefcase hurries to work, while a horse-drawn cart carries a brass bed frame—perhaps a sign of new arrivals to the neighborhood. The movement in the scene is accentuated by Lawrence’s frequent use of diagonal lines and angular shapes. In the midst of this colorful urban maelstrom, a photographer snaps a group portrait of a well-dressed family, the bright flash of his camera forming a dynamic barbed abstract form. Itinerant portrait photographers practiced their vocation on the streets of Harlem in the 1930s and ‘40s, capturing on-the-spot likenesses in tintypes (direct positive impressions on thin iron sheets) with box cameras.

The painting’s first owner was the social activist and politically left-wing photographer, graphic designer and painter Ben Shahn, who purchased the work from the pioneering and influential New York-based dealer of avant-garde art, Edith Halpert, owner of the Downtown Gallery, which represented both Lawrence and Shahn in the 1930s and ‘40s. Lawrence’s vibrant depictions of life in Harlem—in addition to his renowned series focused on prominent Black historical figures, such as Toussaint Louverture and Harriet Tubman—have served as touchstones for innumerable other artist-activists such as Romare Bearden and Faith Ringgold.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Photographer
  • Artist: Jacob Lawrence (American, Atlantic City, New Jersey 1917–2000 Seattle, Washington)
  • Date: 1942
  • Medium: Watercolor, opaque watercolor, and graphite on paper
  • Dimensions: 22 1/8 × 30 1/2 in. (56.2 × 77.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2001
  • Object Number: 2001.205
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Blind Beggars, Jacob Lawrence American, Tempera over graphite on illustration board
Blind Beggars
Jacob Lawrence
1938
The Shoemaker, Jacob Lawrence American, Watercolor and opaque watercolor over graphite on paper
The Shoemaker
Jacob Lawrence
1945
120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28.110.8.17.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8... -an informer's coded message, Jacob Lawrence American, Egg temperal on hardboard
Returned to lender
120.9.14.286.9.33-ton 290.9.27 be at 153.9.28.110.8.17.255.9.29 evening 178.9.8... -an informer's coded message
Jacob Lawrence
1955
I alarmed almost every house till I got to Lexington-Paul Revere, Jacob Lawrence American, Tempera on hardboard
Returned to lender
I alarmed almost every house till I got to Lexington-Paul Revere
Jacob Lawrence
1954
And a Woman Mans a Cannon, Jacob Lawrence American, Egg tempera on hardboard
Returned to lender
And a Woman Mans a Cannon
Jacob Lawrence
1955

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