byBEMoulden

-Jack Kornfield

Algeria. Bejeweled hands of a Tuareg woman, near Tamanrasset. Frans Lemmens.

Keke Palmer as Emerald Haywood in Nope (2022) dir. Jordan Peele

Interviewer: What’s “free” to you, Nina? Nina Simone: What’s “free” to me? Interviewer: Yeah Nina Simone: Same thing it is to you. You tell me. Interviewer: No, no, you tell me [laughs] Nina Simone: [laughs] It’s just a feeling. It’s just a feeling. It’s like, “How do you tell somebody how it feels to be in love?” How are you going to tell anybody who has not been in love how it feels to be in love? You cannot do it to save your life. You can describe things but you can’t tell them, but you know it when it happens. That’s what I mean by “free”. 

“People are always referring to this or that ‘golden age.’ I was lucky to start photography in a time that was often called the ‘Golden Age of Jazz.’ I got to see and photograph Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and others…It was not only a golden age as far as the stars were concerned, it was a golden age for photographers. A dumb kid like myself could pay admission and shoot whatever I wanted. There was no security, no managers, and no PR people, just the jazz people themselves and the music. With rare exceptions, no one ever objected. It was a picnic. I will always be grateful for the listening and the joy of shooting these great people.” - Jay Maisel (Seen pictured: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Chet Baker, and Gerry Mulligan)

iman for jean paul gaultier s/s 1999

Ella Fitzgerald performing at the Downbeat as Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Richard Rodgers watch in the audience, 1949.

Photo: Herman Leonard via Fahey Klein Gallery