James Latimer Allen was a virtually unknown photographer who, until this 1999 exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery, had not been the subject of an exhibition or publication since 1930. However, as this exhibition catalogue demonstrates, Allen constructed a visual identity for an entire generation, photographing the intellectual and social elite of Harlem’s Black community from the late 1920s through the early 1940s. The catalogue’s illustrated essay details Allen’s life and career and explains the ways in which his photographs shaped not only how Black people thought about themselves but also how they were viewed by others. A checklist of the 50 works in the exhibition is included.