phrases

“ Photography goes hand in glove with music and it might be fair to say given the somewhat parallel history and evolution of both photography and jazz music that black and white photography and jazz music are synonymous with one another.” OSCAR NOMINATED CINEMATOGRAPHER, HENRY ADEBONOJO

“It all began with a camera. I originally had no intentions of launching a business. But then I decided to turn a hobby into something more. I found my purpose and wanted to share it with the world. How you take a picture is the way you tell your story, it can make all the difference.” CHUCK STEWART

This metaphorical potential of jazz thrums through Smith’s approach to photography. Whether crouched close to Barry Harris during a late-night set—the spotlight illuminating the long lines of the upright piano, the player’s deft fingers over the keys, and the smoke emanating from his cigarette—or filling the picture plane with the sound emanating from a horn player, Smith’s photographs pulse with rhythm and life. As photographer Ming Smith argues,

“It’s the photographer’s eye that gives a picture soul and tells a story.” chuck stewart 

“As Miles Davis was to jazz, Beuford was to photography. He was part of the black community, very generous in his spirit. He took responsibility for his images and with those images he portrayed the best in our culture. I felt the tenderness, the humanity, the community, the love that he had with the community through his images. He was hip, and by that, I mean very sophisticated, very intellectual, just like Miles was. He had bop, he was like bebop.”

„Jazz is a life-long passion.“ And I like to listen to it through the lens of my camera …“ says the founder of Jazz World Photo Patrick Marek.

“I’m always interested in how the musicians define their music–that’s the only thing that really matters.” CHUCK STEWART