James Van Der Zee is best known for his portraits made during the Harlem Renaissance, the period between the world wars that saw a flowering of Black visual and performing arts. However, his passion for photography began earlier, during his teenage years in Lenox, Massachusetts, when he won an eight-dollar camera as a prize and immediately began using it to create photographs of his family. Here, he posed his younger brother Charley collecting apples outside their home. Like his later celebrated work, this portrait is full of texture and tone, signaling an appreciation for the small luxuries of life.