Rare Chuck Stewart photos of jazz and R&B legends on display in Atlanta

A photography exhibit by the late music and culture photographer Chuck Stewart is on display now at The Sun ATL, giving an intimate glimpse into the lives of some of jazz and R&B’s most iconic figures.

Titled “Framing the Sound,” the installation at the gallery in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood runs until Sept. 26 and showcases 70 candid portraits of musicians taken with a Rolleiflex camera in their homes, during recording sessions and at live performances.

The exhibit includes a close-up of late singer Tina Turner wearing a fur coat, saxophonist Cannonball Adderley dozing off in the studio, a silver gelatin print of jazz vocalist Billie Holiday, a young Quincy Jones conducting musicians at Mercury Records and Maya Angelou dancing.

Several portraits of trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane are included to mark what would have been their centennial birthdays this year.

Another section called “Georgia on My Mind” spotlights artists with Georgia ties, including James Brown, Peabo Bryson and Gladys Knight, along with portraits Stewart took around the state.

Miles Davis' live performance at Randall's Island Jazz Festival in New York City in 1958. (Courtesy of Chuck Stewart Photography, LLC/Fireball Entertainment Group)

There’s also a wall-size collage of album covers taken by Stewart, a display that also features his camera equipment and personal memorabilia. Atlanta is the first U.S. city to present his color photos to the public, and “Framing the Sound” is the first exhibit in the city themed around the iconic photographer’s work, according to the late photographer’s archive director, Kim Stewart.

Some of the portraits will have QR codes to scan for original recordings by the performers and hip-hop songs sampling those compositions.

Kim Stewart, also the photographer’s daughter-in-law, said she wants to curate an interactive experience introducing him to new audiences.

“I don’t know if younger people are there yet with vinyl bars popping up everywhere, but I want them to have an authentic experience,” she said. “It brings together how the music is still being continued with the generations to come.”

‘Chuck just wanted to take a good picture’

Throughout his seven-decade career, Chuck Stewart, who was born in Texas and raised in Arizona, used the camera to capture his subjects in intimate moments. He developed all his prints and never used digital technology.

In 1952, Stewart was the U.S. Army’s only Black photographer assigned to document a nuclear bomb test. He began photographing the New York music scene and became a fixture on the jazz circuit.

In 1964, Stewart had exclusive access to travel with The Beatles on their first American tour and became the only photographer to capture Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” recording sessions. Twenty-five portraits from those Coltrane sessions are now in the Smithsonian Museum’s permanent collection.

Stewart was also one of the earliest voting members for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (now Recording Academy).

Quincy Jones holds his arms out in a conducting pose at Mercury Records Recording Studio for a recording session for Brook Benton in New York City in January 1959. (Courtesy of Chuck Stewart Photography, LLC/Fireball Entertainment Group)

Kim Stewart said he researched before working on artists’ album covers.

“He would go and listen where the music was being played, shoot and pick out three or four pictures for the record company based on what he felt,” she said.

In 1998, Stewart retired from professional photography after shooting 2,000 album covers and 800,000 photos. He died in 2017 in Teaneck, New Jersey at age 89.

Kim Stewart, who moved to Conyers from Teaneck in 2016, said the self-contained artist was sought after for his integrity and interpersonal savvy.

“Chuck just wanted to take a good picture, capture the essence and soul of Black people. He met them in their space, and they knew he wasn’t going to take a paparazzi picture. He was very charming with everybody and the dude to hang out with. He was out there but wasn’t accustomed to being in front of the camera,” she said.

“Framing the Sound” came together about a year ago after Kim Stewart, who’s managed the archives full-time since 2017, was introduced to Shawn Vinson, The Sun ATL owner, through Atlanta-based veteran photographer Jim Alexander. Alexander had a photo exhibit with photojournalist Sue Ross at the gallery last summer.

Earlier this year, she invited Vinson to her home to look through portraits stored in her garage. They tossed potential exhibition titles around until settling on “Framing the Sound” to reflect the artist’s interactions with performers.

“It was a vision that I had to embody the music, album covers, the artists and relationships Chuck had,” she said.

Vinson, who started as a photographer, said collaborating with Stewart’s daughter-in law on the installation revives his passion for music photography.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store, because there are so many decades and volume to choose from. It’s one of the most exciting shows I can do because it combines everything I love,” he said.

“Framing the Sound” is one of several programs and projects debuting to celebrate what would have been Chuck Stewart’s centennial birthday in 2027.

Kim Stewart plans to publish a book of 100 portraits with 100 quotes from his subjects. San Francisco Jazz Center is naming a scholarship in his honor, she said.

She hopes being intentional about handling her father-in-law’s art would have made him proud.

“I’m still trying to maintain the integrity of a Chuck Stewart picture,” she said.