Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-60

Jazz photography has garnered increasing attention in recent years, with enthusiasts cherishing images of musicians and historians and critics eager to incorporate photographs as illustrative elements. However, there has been limited critical examination of these photographs, and it is noticeable that the established 'tradition' of jazz photography is largely dominated by a select few well-known photographers and 'iconic' images. Consequently, the contributions of many other photographers, including African American photojournalists, studio photographers, early twentieth-century émigrés, Jewish exiles from the 1930s, and vernacular snapshots, are frequently overlooked.

Drawing on insights from contemporary photographic theory, underpinned by extensive original archival research, Sight Readings offers a thorough exploration of twentieth-century jazz photography. It includes insightful discussions on jazz as a visual subject, its appeal to diverse types of photographers, and provides a detailed analysis of why and how they approached the subject in their particular ways.

One of the remarkable aspects of this book is its seamless movement between meticulous archival research – the empirical documentation of photographers, their techniques, working practices, equipment, etc. – and sophisticated cultural theory, encompassing aesthetics, cultural sociology, and the politics of identity. The result is both a significant scholarly achievement and an engaging labour of love, promising to enrich our understanding of both jazz and photography.