Composer Portraits

 Here are some of my favourite portraits of composers:

Gian Carlo Menotti by Nina Leen, 1950

Jean Sibelius by Yousuf Karsh, July 30, 1949

"The structure of his face reminded me of carved granite, yet with infinite warmth and humanity. This photograph was one of the last taken. He was visibly moved as I told him how the Finnish workers, in their northern Canadian logging camps, doubled their wartime output when his Finlandia was played for them."

Alan Hovhaness by Gordon Parks, 1955

Meredith Monk by Julieta Cervantes, 2015

Nadia Boulanger by Erich Auerbach, c. 1975

Alberto Ginastera by Bob Gomel, 1966

Henry Cowell by Berenice Abbott, 1945

Elisabeth Lutyens by J.S. Lewinski

Ethel Smyth by Sasha, 1925

Duke Ellington by Baron Wolman, 1972

Samuel Barber by Gordon Parks, December 1955

Ralph Vaughan Williams by Norman Parkinson, 1951

Sergei Prokofiev by Hanna Elkan, 1930s

Arnold Schoenberg by Florence Meyer, 1947

Alban Berg & Anton Webern by Alfred Dagli Orti. Undated, but perhaps from the early 1920s.

Arnold Schönberg, Erwin Stein & Anton Webern by Alban Berg, 1914.

Berg took photos when Schoenberg travelled with his three students. "As you can see, the pictures are very mediocre due to the poor weather, & some didn’t turn out at all."

Don't be too hard on yourself, Alban!

Kaija Saariaho by Raphael Gaillarde, Paris, 2004

Richard Rodney Bennett, Malcolm Williamson, Thea Musgrave & Peter Maxwell Davies at the Cafe Boulevard. A fine photograph by Erich Auerbach, London, April 9, 1965.

Peter Maxwell Davies by Neil Drabble, April 5, 1990

Hans Werner Henze by Erich Auerbach, 1969

Richard Strauss by Edward Steichen, 1904

Gioacchino Rossini by Nadar, March 1856

Heitor Villa-Lobos by Arnold Newman. My favourite portrait of our Villa.

Igor Stravinsky by Arnold Newman, New York, 1946. Is this the greatest composer portrait of them all?

Sally Beamish by Ashley Coombes, 2016

A selfie by Benjamin Britten, December 1934

John Cage prepares a piano. A great shot by Fred McDarrah, 1957.

Philip Glass by Ebet Roberts, 1987

Leonard Bernstein by Gordon Parks, 1956

Aaron Copland by Gordon Parks, 1955

The late Ned Rorem by Man Ray, Paris, 1953

Paul Bowles by Dennis Stock, 1952

Dmitri Shostakovich by Leonard McCombe, New York, 1949

Darius Milhaud by Gjon Mili, 1949

Germaine Tailleferre by Boris Lipnitzki, c.1922

R. Murray Schafer by Gisela Bauknecht, 1984

To end, one more shot of Heitor Villa-Lobos by Arnold Newman.

The Portraits of Paolo di Paolo

Paolo di Paolo took amazing photographs in Italy in the 1950s and 60s, but in 1968 he left photography, and his negatives went into storage. He's back today, thanks to an exhibition in 2018, and now a new film by Bruce Weber, The Treasure of His Youth.

Gina Lollobrigida by Paolo di Paolo, Rome, 1961. Hey, look! It's Giorgio de Chirico!

Tennessee Williams by Paolo di Paolo, Tor San Lorenzo, south of Rome, 1955

 

Pier Paolo Pasolini by Paolo di Paolo, Rome, 1960

"Pasolini was very quiet, rarely talked and was very absent. He was also very suspicious of me because I was a photographer and he was, let’s say not snobbish, but very intellectual."

Another Paolo di Paolo photo of Pier Paolo Pasolini, in the working-class neighbourhood of Testaccio in Rome, 1960.

"The scenario was incredible. The sky was very dark with grey clouds. All the rocks and a feeling of abandonment in this rather sad environment. So Pasolini sat down and I saw this young guy, who was spying on us, coming from the opposite side. The guy was looking curiously at what we were doing. And then went away. At that moment I realised I was taking an incredible picture. The photo of my life. I had just a couple of seconds to shoot it."

Monica Vitti & Michelangelo Antonioni by Paolo di Paolo, Rome,1958

Charlotte Rampling by Paolo di Paolo, Sardinia, 1968

Ezra Pound by Paolo di Paolo, Perugia, 1964

Gloria Swanson by Paolo di Paolo, Villa d'Este, Tivoli, 1956

Alberto Moravia & Claudia Cardinale by Paolo di Paolo, c. 1961-62

Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, Aventino, Rome, 1956

Jazz for the Eye

My favourite William Claxton portraits.

André Previn by William Claxton, 1961

Elvin Jones by William Claxton, c. 1960

Chet Baker by William Claxton, Hollywood, 1954

"I saw his striking reflection in the piano top & placed my Rolleiflex on the piano. It was a one-time shot because he moved away almost immediately."

William Claxton's shot of Donald Byrd on the A Train, 1959

William Claxton gets in his own shot of Marlene Dietrich, Las Vegas, 1955

"Above all," said Claxton, "my work is about friendship."

Joe Williams by William Claxton, Philadelphia, 1960

I love this William Claxton photo of John Coltrane at the Guggenheim Museum, 1960

The painting is by Franz Kline, but I can't track down which one.

Philly Joe Jones & Larance Marable by William Claxton

"Photography is jazz for the eye. All I ask you to do is listen with your eyes."

Judy Garland by William Claxton, Las Vegas, 1961

"I kept these personal & revealing images for myself. I didn't want a cheap movie fan magazine to print such a revealing shot."

A self-portrait of William Claxton from 1957