Abstract

This photo essay is a curated set of portraits of musicians who selected their most significant Miles Davis LP records. The portraits are part of a wider collaborative project—One LP—between internationally respected jazz photographer William Ellis and popular-music academic Tim Wall. The portraits are supported by interviews exploring the way that their chosen Miles Davis record resonates in their lives. Many of the musicians featured worked with Davis, and their choices and motivations reveal the diverse ways in which Davis’ music was important in their developing artistic careers. The project explores the way that musicians are represented visually and through their quoted words to build a new picture of their relationship to recorded music and to blur the line between musicians and music fans. By rethinking the way musicians are more often captured in professional portrait photography, the chapter rethinks their relationship to this music.