Tonight at the meeting of the Indiana Photographic Society, we had the opportunity to listen to Duncan Schiedt, a noted jazz musician photographer. Duncan has been photographing musicians for over 60 years and he has photographed some of the legends of the jazz world: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and many, many more great musicians.
He told us of his first time listening to jazz music, via BBC radio while attending an English school. After the overseas school trip ended, he returned home and was visiting a friend who showed Duncan his darkroom. Duncan told us that after spending an hour in the darkroom, he was hooked on photography. He then combined his two loves of jazz and photography into a lifelong passion.
His first ever picture was taken with an Argus camera and was of Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton (he showed us this picture tonight). He only shoots using film or slides and still develops and prints his own pictures. All of his work in the jazz field are done in B&W because as he puts it "Jazz music is black and white due to it's range of emotions, moods and the brilliance of the music."
During his presentation, he showed us over 80 slides of some of the various musicians he has photographed over the years and also told personal stories about the musicians. Some of the stories were about the musicians he has befriended while other anecdotes were about the pictures, asking the musicians to pose in a certain way or just about the process involved in taking the pictures.
In addition to his work photographing jazz musicians, he has also worked as a fashion photographer, theater photographer, worked in the film industry on over 100 16mm films and has written several books. His first book was a biography about the life of Fats Waller. His work has also been used by Ken Burns in the PBS series "Jazz". He brought several books to the meeting and I purchased a book and he was gracious enough to autograph it for me.
All in all, it was definitely one of our best meetings and I was thrilled to see his work. I didn't know many of the musicians in the pictures (I'm learning who they are now by reading his book), but I know great photos when I see them, and his are definitely wonderful. This book is something I will definitely treasure and will use it as inspiration for when I am out with the camera.
He told us of his first time listening to jazz music, via BBC radio while attending an English school. After the overseas school trip ended, he returned home and was visiting a friend who showed Duncan his darkroom. Duncan told us that after spending an hour in the darkroom, he was hooked on photography. He then combined his two loves of jazz and photography into a lifelong passion.
His first ever picture was taken with an Argus camera and was of Benny Goodman and Lionel Hampton (he showed us this picture tonight). He only shoots using film or slides and still develops and prints his own pictures. All of his work in the jazz field are done in B&W because as he puts it "Jazz music is black and white due to it's range of emotions, moods and the brilliance of the music."
During his presentation, he showed us over 80 slides of some of the various musicians he has photographed over the years and also told personal stories about the musicians. Some of the stories were about the musicians he has befriended while other anecdotes were about the pictures, asking the musicians to pose in a certain way or just about the process involved in taking the pictures.
In addition to his work photographing jazz musicians, he has also worked as a fashion photographer, theater photographer, worked in the film industry on over 100 16mm films and has written several books. His first book was a biography about the life of Fats Waller. His work has also been used by Ken Burns in the PBS series "Jazz". He brought several books to the meeting and I purchased a book and he was gracious enough to autograph it for me.
All in all, it was definitely one of our best meetings and I was thrilled to see his work. I didn't know many of the musicians in the pictures (I'm learning who they are now by reading his book), but I know great photos when I see them, and his are definitely wonderful. This book is something I will definitely treasure and will use it as inspiration for when I am out with the camera.
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