Chuck Stewart: Framing the Sound at the Sun ATL Gallery opens August 8th and runs through September 26th. Stewart’s work spans decades and was highly respected not only by jazz enthusiasts but by the artists themselves. The exhibition is also part of the ongoing commemoration of the 100th Birthdays of jazz icons Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Stewart’s daughter-in-law and archivist Kim Stewart joins us to speak about her father’s work and the exhibition.
I asked Kim Stewart to tell us about her relationship to her father-in-law’s work. She spoke of him being in the hospital and her routine of stopping by daily to check on him and the stories he began to tell her. The storytelling continuing when he left the hospital. She like most knew him a a “jazz” photographer due to may album covers he produced, but Stewart went through his archives and discovered Little Richard, Bo Didley, The Allman Brothers and more!
Stewart explains that she curated the exhibition with the idea of recreating the retro activity of studying album covers when consuming the music. She wants people to engage with the work in the same way. To pause, reflect, and listen to movement and lyrics of the work.
I visited Kim Stewart’s home before the interview and was awed by the breadth of the work and images of super stars at such young ages, I can’t image trying to decide what to include. There is a portion of the exhibition dedicated to Georgia Artists including rare images of Gladys Knight and James Brown. His photographs are constantly licensed for use in documentaries and other works.
Chuck Stewart had a broad life that encompassed our nation’s history. He captured photographs of Buffalo Soldiers and while enlisted in our armed services he was a “human drone.” Stewart literally jumped out of airplanes to capture the destruction of nuclear devices at the Yucca Flats Atomic facility in Nevada.