 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Drawn from the vast collection of renowned Beverly Hills photographer
William Claxton, this Center for Jazz Arts premiere exhibition provides
a view of Los Angeles and Hollywood history too often removed from the
broader legacy of jazz culture in the United States, and presents
a brief survey of timeless images that will forever embody the innocence,
diversity, and individual character of some of the most
cherished figures from American music and film.
Throughout his more than fifty-year career, William Claxton's photographs have captured intimate moments from the lives of
musical artists, composers, actors, directors, writers, entertainers, and fashion icons, from around the world,
and have appeared in such defining journals of twentieth-century culture as Life, Harper's Bazaar, Time, Newsweek, and Vogue.
In this exhibition, with the sound-stages, music clubs, and concert halls of Hollywood as his backdrop, Claxton brings us deeply human profiles of
numerous, beloved artists whose interactions with each other, their instruments, and the environments around them, remain indelible
documents of our time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Louis Armstrong w/Danny Kaye
Paramount Studios, Hollywood, 1958
© William Claxton |
|
[ click to enlarge ] |
|
When once describing his admiration for the individualism of musical artists, Claxton stated "I am just as intrigued by the movements and body language of musicians while they play. I study them carefully before photographing them, much like I would watch a dancer, an actor, or even an ordinary person performing an ordinary task." In addition to his work with the many artists featured here, William Claxton has remained an inexorable part of the artistic life of Southern California, and has spent decades both discovering and celebrating its evolution.
From his earliest encounter with a young saxophonist named Charlie Parker, in 1950s Pasadena, to his award-winning work
with leading Los Angeles-based musical artists, composers, authors, and creative leaders such as Herb Alpert, Wayne Shorter,
Clint Eastwood, Herbie Hancock, and numerous others, William Claxton's skill as "visual storyteller" has captured the spirit
of an artistic community that continues to flourish amidst a culture rooted in diversity.
|
|
|
|
|
Discovering a passion for the art of photography while still in his college years at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Claxton would go on to play an integral part in the founding of Southern California's "Pacific Jazz" record label, in 1952. In his work as art director and principal photographer with Pacific Jazz, Claxton's entrance into the world of commercial photography coincided with a new era of invention in the field of art design for musical production.
In describing the conditions that led to the development of his unique visual and artistic focus, he stated "Most of the jazz
photography before me showed sweaty musicians, with shiny faces, in dark, smoke-filled bars. That was jazz to most people."
Remaining immersed in the natural surroundings and life-style of Southern California, Claxton's now distinctive practice of
engaging his subjects in diverse, light-filled settings would soon play a defining role in the field of jazz-themed photography.
[ back to top ] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
