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| The Golden Age of Jazz
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William P. Gottlieb
Although he hasn't photographed jazz people in 50 years, Bill Gottlieb, in a 1990 Issue of Modern
Photography, was called "The Great Jazz Photographer." The New York Times credits Bill with
"the flair of a high artist." The New Yorker said, "Gottlieb stopped photographing jazz muscians
in 1948. No one has surpassed him yet."
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 Django Reinhardt
© William P. Gottlieb |
 Billie Holiday
© William P. Gottlieb |
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Bill first used a camera in 1939 to illustrate his pioneering weekly jazz column in the Washington
Post. He was paid for the writing, not the photography, and since the film, flash bulbs, and
cameras (Speed Graphics and Rolleis) were bulky and expensive, he typically made only three or
four exposures a session (all taken "on location"). So he learned to shoot very carefully.
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 Frank Sinatra
© William P. Gottlieb |
 Thelonius Monk
© William P. Gottlieb |
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The photography paid off, it enhanced his column, later helped him become an Air Force photo
officer in WWII, then clinched an editor's job on Down Beat Magazine (though he was still not paid
for his photos). Bill left the jazz scene in 1948 to produce educational filmstrips and do children's
books.
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 Sidney Bechet
© William P. Gottlieb |
 Ella Fitzgerald
© William P. Gottlieb |
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Upon retiring in 1979, Bill published his old jazz photos as The Golden Age of Jazz. The New
York Times predicted that Bill also "seems to be entering the golden age of William P. Gottlieb."
How prescient! His jazz images have since appeared on nearly 250 record album and CD covers,
on two dozen posters, and a like number of postcards and T-shirts. They have been in hundreds of
books, magazines, calendars, TV documentaries, and even in major motion pictures as
background atmosphere or used to recreate a historic site. Meanwhile, exhibitions of the prints
have appeared in more than 150 venues, from the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm, Sweden, to
the Navio Museum in Osaka, Japan. The book is now in it's tenth printing. One of Bill's photos of
Duke Ellington was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery: and his images are the basis of four
US Postage Stamps. In 1997, the New Jersey Jazz Society honored him as the non-musician who
did the most for jazz that year. In 1998, Down Beat presented Bill with their annual Lifetime
achievement award.
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 Charlie Parker
© William P. Gottlieb |
 Cab Calloway
© William P. Gottlieb |
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For more photos, visit the Golden Age of Jazz web site.
The Library of Congress, using funds from the Ira & Leonore S. Gershwin Fund, purchased all of Gottlieb's jazz
negatives "for posterity." Bill retains the copyright © and commercial rights for many years to come. All Rights Reserved.
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