For Heather Pinson (2010), “the history of jazz and the history of photography have much in common, particularly the fact that both were struggling to be recognized as legitimate art forms at about the same time.” Few genres of music are as well defined by the photographic image as jazz. Privileged access to backstage areas and smoke-filled rehearsal rooms shot in the era-defining tones of black and white film photography have helped shape the iconic image of ‘jazz’ in the popular imagination. This static representation is even more surprising given that jazz is a genre of music so closely associated with movement and improvisation.
This series of ‘anti-jazz’ images using live performance snippets of iconic jazz musicians found on YouTube is photographed and edited using an iPhone and the Snapseed app. They challenge the classic but cliched notion of jazz photography and explore how the contradiction between the democratisation of photography through smartphones can be reconciled with inaccessibility to canonical musicians who helped define ‘the jazz image’, most of whom have now passed. The images reflect the journey of jazz itself as a counter-force as it “became both a pastime for entertainment and a stylistic statement against traditional norms.” (Pinson, 2010)
