Ted Williams (1925-2009) first heard jazz on the radio as a youngster in the 1930s in Wichita, Kansas. The sounds of Earl Hines, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway broadcast from Chicago's legendary Grand Terrace Ballroom inspired him and in the late 1940s, Williams merged his love of music and photography and moved to Chicago where he captured unguarded photographic studies of some of the era's greatest jazz musicians.
His work appeared in major international publications including Time, Newsweek, Look, Playboy and Ebony. His coverage of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival landed him a spectacular 21-page layout in Down Beat magazine. Williams was active on the jazz scene from the late 1940s until the late 1970s. He photographed many of the greats in jazz, including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong. Williams’ historic archive runs to more than 100,000 images and comprises perhaps the most intimate and complete collection of Jazz’s greatest musicians at work, rest and play.
Ted Williams Iconic News
#FineArtFriday – Vintage Prints by Ted Williams
Now, for the first time, Iconic Images is proud to present vintage prints from the Ted Williams’ archive.
Read the full article
Iconic Spotlight : Paul Desmond, by Ted Williams
This week we jump deeper into the archive with a story from Ted Williams about a Paul Desmond party…
Read the full article
#FineArtFriday – Dizzy Gillespie, by Ted Williams
Ted Williams first heard jazz on the radio as a youngster in the 1930s in Wichita, Kansas. The sounds of Earl Hines, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway broadcast from Chicago’s legendary Grand Terrace Ballroom inspired him and in the late 1940s, Williams merged his love of music and photography and moved to Chicago where he … Read the full article
#FineArtFriday – Civil Rights, by Ted Williams
On 21st June, 1964, Ted Williams photographed the ‘Illinois Rally for Civil Rights’ at Soldier Field in Chicago which featured principle speakers Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President and Founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, President of the University of Notre Dame.
Read the full articleTed Williams Press
TIME Magazine : Ted Williams
See the Photographs That Captured the Icons of Jazz
View article
Hearing Music in Photos of Jazz Giants
A good jazz photograph tells its story musically as much as visually. More than images of rock, classical or hip-hop musicians, jazz images, like those of Ted Williams, who studied saxophone and clarinet before picking up the camera after World War II, seem to capture the intangible essence of a thought being transformed into sound.
View article
This is our music: 20th-century US jazz greats – in pictures
Photographer Ted Williams captured the musicians who made jazz into the great American art form – from superstars Billie Holiday and Miles Davis to less exalted players such as Ira Sullivan and Ray Brown.
View article
