In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

63 CHAPTER 2 The Construction of Signs in Jazz Photography [L]ike his music, a fine photograph of a musician reflects his soul. I’m very interested in photography and in how the camera can capture personality. . . . —DIZZY GILLESPIE1 How can a picture represent a style of music? What image comes to mind when we think about a musical genre? With classical music, one generally imagines an instrument such as a flute or violin, the thunderous sounds of a symphony orchestra playing the music of Beethoven, or Mozart at the clavichord in the movie Amadeus. With pop music, one imagines the facial makeup of Kiss, the Beatles’ album covers, or jeans, a cowboy hat, and an acoustic guitar with country. every category of music contains its own identity, a trait not shared by other genres. then how is it that, as David ake says, “we ‘see’ music as well as hear it?”2 Wassily Kandinsky used abstract painting to depict musical improvisation, Piet Mondrian recalled the streets of new york and the sounds of jazz with Broadway Boogie Woogie, Jackson Pollock’s action painting is suppose to emulate the improvisatory nature of ragtime and Dixieland, and even King Ludwig of Bavaria had the plots of Wagner’s operas painted onto the interior castle walls of neuschwanstein. for centuries, artists have tried to capture visually what they hear in music. With the development of twentieth-century technology, artists were able to trade in their pen and paper for film and digital media, thereby broadening their capabilities and their palette. How could one maintain a career by merely presenting music as it appears? Since there is not a high demand for artists who can do so successfully, it is usually those who are enamored with music to the point that they must reproduce their feelings 64 THE ConSTRuCTIon oF SIGnS In JAzz PHoToGRAPHy about what they are hearing. Most individuals who found themselves following their favorite musicians around from bar to concert stage did so for the love of the music and not the idea of a self-induced claim to fame. the men who have maintained a niche by bridging the disciplines of music and photography include William claxton, William Gottlieb, ole Brask, Lee tanner, Milt Hinton, Herb Snitzer, and Herman Leonard. they did so by creating a market for jazz photography that was not previously there, beyond merely following and photographing their favorite musicians. few photographers receive acclaim during their lifetime; it is remarkable that these few have garnered recognition for their work. Part of their success can be attributed to their ability to transfer their passion for music to the viewer. Leonard, in particular, was able to successfully transmit what he felt for jazz to a broader audience. this chapter will analyze Leonard’s photographs through the terminology of roland Barthes in order to determine those elements in a photograph that create a relationship with the viewer. By analyzing those techniques in a photograph that can effectively communicate to the viewer, one can discover the underlying symbolism of each photograph, and characterize elements that are not always readily visible but contribute to the overall effect. roland Barthes, a noted semiotician on photography, image, and text, interprets a photograph based on the messages found within visual elements of the photograph. for instance, a denoted message is the literal, obvious meanings of a photograph that are basic to a reader’s understanding , whereas connoted messages are the interpretations found within the photograph—or as Barthes says, “the manner in which the society to a certain extent communicates what it [society] thinks of it [the photograph ].”3 He contends that the combination of these denoted and connoted messages bring to light the significance of a photograph, and in the process of analysis, one formulates a layered discourse, a language based on the image. this language, which Barthes calls a “meta-language,” includes new meanings and words about the image that can contribute to the understanding of the environment outside of the image and the society from which it comes.4 one of the qualities that make Leonard’s photography noteworthy is the layering of connoted and denoted messages within each photograph. Like a musical composition, each picture contains a collection of several formal structures that holds the composition together. By studying the signs in the picture, one can hypothesize as to the meaning and events surrounding the image and come closer to determining the precise part of reality the photograph replicates. thus...

Share