Just for the jazz of it

This photographic portrait, titled ‘Just for the Jazz of It’, captures a powerful and deliberate nod to the history of jazz, its intrinsic ties to Black women, and its broader cultural impact. Using contemporary studio portrait photography, the work bridges past and present, celebrating the intersection of sexuality, power, and the evolving social definitions of beauty.

As a genre Jazz has historically been a space of artistic innovation and cultural resistance, deeply rooted in the experiences of Black communities. For Black women, jazz has represented both empowerment and marginalisation, a space where their talents and beauty were celebrated yet often commodified.

These portraits reclaim that narrative, emphasising the subject's agency through her poised demeanour, luxurious pearls, and commanding posture, evoking the elegance of jazz icons like Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. It situates the Black woman as a subject of power, beauty, and influence rather than objectification.

The photograph’s striking black attire, bold red lips, and classic cigarette holder reference the femme fatale archetype, merging historical and contemporary imagery to challenge and redefine social notions of sexuality and beauty. The confident pose speaks to self-assurance and power, rejecting outdated stereotypes that diminished Black women’s sensuality while celebrating their strength and autonomy.

Drawing from personal and cultural histories to create. The studio setup offers controlled lighting and composition, reinforcing the subject’s dominance in the frame. This artistic approach critiques societal beauty standards while celebrating Black women as creators, innovators, and cultural icons.

Through this piece, the relationship between jazz, gender, and identity is explored, further connecting art and cultural history within the framework of Black British visual arts, through autoethnographic and visual ethnography methodologies.

Connecting to the Photographer Irving Penn's work, particularly his Hollywood-era portraiture, I decided to reframe his aesthetic to situate the Black woman within this narrative.

Critiques and expanding upon Penn's visual language, highlighting representation, and cultural identity.

Monson, Ingrid's Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Monson's work situates jazz as a dialogue, where musicians express resistance and identity. This aligns with the photograph's exploration of Black women reclaiming space in a historically male-dominated cultural sphere.

Chude-Sokei, Louis. The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics. Wesleyan University Press, 2015.

This book delves into the relationship between Black cultural production, including jazz, and how Black women often embodied strength, sensuality, and innovation in their performance and visual representation.

Gabbard, Krin. Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema. University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Gabbard highlights how visual aesthetics in jazz imagery created a cultural mythology around the music and its artists, blending style with societal narratives.

New Insights:

It offers original contributions to understanding Black British visual arts, intersectionality, and identity through creative outputs, autoethnography, or historical analysis.

Effectively Shared:
The Portraits and reflective analysis ensure my findings are shared with both academic and previously public audiences.

The subject’s elegant yet powerful pose aligns with historical depictions of jazz women like Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker, celebrating their resilience and beauty.

The use of symbols (pearls, cigarette holder) evokes the glamorous yet complex personas of Black women in jazz, merging historical and contemporary contexts.

Through this series, the photography situates jazz within a modern feminist and intersectional framework, linking Black women’s cultural and artistic agency to ongoing conversations about beauty, power, and representation.