William P. Gottlieb

Life & Legacy

William Paul Gottlieb (January 28, 1917 – April 23, 2006) was an American photographer and newspaper columnist who is best known for his classic photographs of the leading performers of the Golden Age of American jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. Gottlieb's photographs are among the best known and widely reproduced images of this jazz era.
Gottlieb took pictures of hundreds of prominent jazz musicians and personalities, typically while they were playing or singing at well-known New York City jazz clubs. His subjects included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Hines, Jo Stafford, Thelonious Monk, Stan Kenton, Ray McKinley, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald, Toots Thielemans, Cab Calloway, and Benny Carter. In accordance with his wishes, Gottlieb's photographs were placed in the public domain in 2010; many are used in Wikipedia and other public domain or freely licensed venues.