A NEW EXHIBITION BY DAVID REDFERN - www.redferns.com
Exhibition runs from January 20th
Portobello Gold presents a new exhibition of music photography by photographer David Redfern.
DAVID REDFERN (born 7th June 1936 Ashbourne Derbyshire England) began his career in the twilight jazz clubs of London in the early 1960's, risking his one and only camera amongst the jiving teenage crowds. The British Trad boom was under way and his first published photos featured Kenny Ball, Chris Barber, George Melly, and the old Marquee Club.
He was living at that time in St John's Wood which was conveniently filled with music business people, from PR girls and song pluggers to arrangers and band-leaders. David found himself in the right place at the right time and threw himself into the music scene with a vengeance.
By day David began photographing TV Shows like 'Ready Steady Go' and 'Thank Your Lucky Stars', resulting in now classic shots of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield.
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. These pictures were to contribute to what is now the most comprehensive jazz collection in Europe. Realising that to break fully into the commercial world he had to chase 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.
By the 1970s 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 in to Terry O'Neill's shoes as official tour photographer.
1985 saw David 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 is one of the biggest exhibitions ever held by Kodak. By 1986 David discovered he had been in the business for 25 years and celebrated this silver anniversary by holding his debut solo exhibition at the West End Gallery. In 1990 he was invited to put on an exhibition in Cuba to coincide with the Jazz festival there.
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 to expanded rapidly. Now covering over 16,000 different artists and styles from every musical genre, and representing some 400 photographers & collections it is the most comprehensive music picture library in the world today.
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 have been 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 USA.
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 travelling the world photographing music festivals and attending trade shows and conferences. 'The Unclosed Eye' has been updated and published by David himself in November 2005.