Don’t miss this engaging art- and photo-documentary exhibition at the Peter Jay Sharp Arcade, 5th floor, Frederick P. Rose Hall at Columbus Circle, NYC. Images are by Frank Stewart, senior staff photographer at Lincoln Center.
Stewart travels the world with the Center’s Orchestra, and best of all, he takes stunning pictures, many of which are found in Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, written by Wynton Marsalis.
On view are images from Stewart’s early travels to Africa and Cuba in the 1970s;
through his artistic studies with Romare Bearden that lasted until Bearden’s death in 1988;
and into the 1990s with his work at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the National Urban League’s Gallery 62, the Kenkeleba House, and Cinque Gallery.
A photo from New Orleans after Katrina
On May 20, a panel, including Stewart, exhibition co-curators Robert O’Meally and C. Daniel Dawson, the noted photography critic A. D. Coleman, and Dr. Petra Richterova explored Stewart’s work in the context of jazz photography, an art form in itself.
Photography and jazz came of age together; until the Rhythm ‘n Blues era, jazz had the most musical influence on photography. Jazz was extremely expressive physically and exciting to photograph. Both endured a second-class status in the arts world, another point of common ground.