DAVID REDFERN: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

'David, to me, is probably the greatest jazz photographer in the world' Buddy Rich

'You know Redfern. He's the Cartier-Bresson of jazz' Dexter Gordon

'David, you're one helluva photographer, keep shooting!' Frank Sinatra

60's JAZZ

David Redfern’s career began in the twilight jazz clubs of 1960’s London. He risked his one and only camera amongst the jiving teenage crowds. The British Trad boom was under way. His first published photos featured Kenny Ball, Chris Barber, George Melly, and the old Marquee Club.

TV

David began photographing TV Shows like ‘Ready Steady Go’ and ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’ which were shot during the day. Here he made many of his now classic shots of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield.

CLUB NIGHTS

Nights were spent at the 100 Club, Ronnie Scott’s or the Marquee, where he captured on film all the jazz greats from Miles Davis to Ella Fitzgerald.

US DAYS

These pictures were to contribute to what is now the most comprehensive jazz collection in Europe. To break into the commercial world by chasing the big American names, David became a regular visitor to the Jazz festivals in Newport, Antibes and Montreux, and the big rock festivals, photographing such greats as Hendrix and Dylan.

FIRST BOOK

By the 1970’s David had firmly established his name as one of the top music photographers in the business. In 1980 Pete Townsend’s Eel Pie Company published David Redfern’s Jazz Album. Lavishly illustrated with many of David’s finest jazz photographs, it was highly acclaimed by critics and public alike. In the same year, at Frank Sinatra’s request, David stepped into Terry O’Neill’s shoes as official tour photographer.

EXHIBITIONS

In the late ‘80s several exhibitions featured the first 25 years:

Including showing his work along with Lord Lichfield and Lord Snowdon at the Kodak and Royal Photographic Society’s ‘Living Body’ exhibition. Based on the Channel 4 TV series, it was one of the biggest exhibitions ever held by Kodak. In 1990 he was invited to put on an exhibition in Cuba to coincide with the Jazz festival there. 

NOTTING DALE

At the beginning of 1989 David moved his music picture library REDFERNS to new premises in West London, a location now much favoured by the British music industry. The library expanded rapidly. Now covering over 26,000 different artists and styles from every musical genre, and representing some 500 photographers and collections it is the most comprehensive music picture library in the world today, with over 205,000 online at www.redferns.com.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Stamp Designs © US POSTAL SERVICE

The December ‘94 issue of the American publication Jazz Times featured David’s work in their ‘Special Collectors Edition’, with select contributions from six of the world’s most highly acclaimed jazz photographers. David was the only non-American to be featured. This also coincided with sale of his 1995 Jazz calendar published by the renowned calendar publishers The Ink Group.

September 1995 saw the launch of a series of 10 Jazz postage stamps by the US post office. Three of David’s images were used: Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk & Coleman Hawkins. The inclusion of the Louis Armstrong image was a result of some 38,000 signatures collected from 65 countries over 8 years, and had a special launch in New Orleans, the birthplace of Louis Armstrong. As a point of interest the picture of Louis Armstrong was taken by David in New York in 1967, on his first visit to the US.

His book The Unclosed Eye was published by Sanctuary publishing in May 1999 with critical acclaim. The London Sunday Times Magazine published a 4 page feature.

The book publication coincided with exhibitions in London, New York and New Orleans, followed by one in Cork, Ireland in October 2000. The prestigious design magazine ‘Creative Review’ published a profile on David in their February 2001 issue. It was entitled ‘Leader with Vision’. David had another exhibition in September 2001 in conjunction with the Soho Jazz & Heritage Festival in London and at the Vienne Jazz festival in June/ July 2002.

David is more active than ever in the picture business. He has been the President of BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies) for the last 15 years, and is still traveling the world photographing music festivals and attending trade shows and conferences.

In November 2005 The Unclosed Eye expanded 2nd edition in hardback was published by David himself. This included a 200 limited slipcase edition complete with two 10 x 8 original colour prints.

David received ‘The Milt Hinton Award for Excellence in Jazz Photography’ in New York in January 2007. The award recognizes lifetime achievement in jazz photography as art and history.