Photographer extraordinaire Gene Martin has died, way before his time (age 55). Early reports suggest it may have been an aneurysm. [Update: Cause of death was a ruptured aorta.]
I considered him a friend. He’d send me blurbs for the JJA newsletter — always long, bursting with information on his current exploits. The last time I saw him was on the corner of 13th Street and Broadway, just a few months ago. We had just walked a few blocks together and were about to part ways. He was headed to the Strand bookstore to peruse the shelves and feed his book habit; I was heading with a friend to the Jazz Standard club, in the opposite direction. But we stood on that corner for a while, talking music and whatever else. He couldn’t seem to stop talking, in fact, and I didn’t want him to stop.
Gene was a tough-minded and knowledgeable businessman, the very model of a successful freelancer. He was also one of the kindest people you could hope to meet. I’ll miss him dearly.
Go here for a recent interview with Gene.
This copy came to me from Jim Eigo at Jazz Promo Services:
Award winning New York based photographer Gene Martin is best known for his conceptual portraiture of celebrities and music personalities for the record company and editorial markets. Gene spent fifteen years as a professional guitar player before switching careers. That prior experience has given Gene an invaluable rapport with music and entertainment people.
Besides photographing the likes of Margaret Thatcher to Bill Cosby to Cyndi Lauper to Les Paul, Gene’s colorful portraiture of famous jazz musicians has been much heralded. For JazzTimes Magazine alone he has photographed over 50 covers since 1988. His portraits have appeared in mainstream magazines as well including Time, Newsweek, US, People, U.S. News & World Report, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and many others worldwide as well as over 300 CD covers. In the book, “The Best of Portrait Photography: Tips & Techniques of the Pros” by the former editor of Peterson Photographic, Gene is ranked among the 50 finest portrait photographers in the country.
In addition, here are Gene’s last three news updates as they appear in Jazz Notes, the quarterly of the Jazz Journalists Association:
Gene Martin has conceived and shot the CD covers for Bob Devos’s Shifting Sands, Reuben Wilson’s Movin’ On, David “Fathead” Newman’s Life (a dedication to the late John Hicks), Russell Gunn’s Electrick Butterfly and Larry Willis’s Blue Fable, all for the HighNote and Savant labels. Gene was the first photographer to be featured on the Nikon website feature called “Behind the Image” with his images of “Fathead” Newman, Dave Weckl, Melvin Sparks and Joe Chambers. Gene’s image of Cedar Walton is the cover on Nikon World magazine as well. [December 2006]
Gene Martin’s image of Houston Person, from the cover of the HighNote release All Soul, was voted Photo of the Year at the JJA’s 2006 awards presentation. Gene travelled to Scottsdale, Arizona in June to photograph the CD packaging for “Papa John” DeFrancesco’s Desert Heat. The shoot was done at the beautiful home of son and Hammond B3 wizard Joey DeFrancesco. In the last few months Gene has also photographed the CD packaging for Cedar Walton’s One Flight Down, Steve Turre’s Keep Searchin’ and Dave Valentin’s Come Fly With Me. Articles on Gene’s work recently appeared in the Modern Guitars online magazine as well as photoworkshop.com’s Double Exposure magazine. The Nikon company showcased some of Gene’s more challenging lighting work in their new feature, “Inside The Image,” on nikonnet.com. [September 2006]
Gene Martin traveled to Los Angeles with the Carlini Group to cover the third in a series of tribute concerts to Les Paul. He shot portraits over two days with the likes of Alison Krauss, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Guy, comedian Pauly Shore and actor Steven Seagal. His images of Seagal and Cecil Brooks III ran on the covers of the March issue of Rangefinder and the April issue of Jazz Improv’s NY Jazz Guide, respectively. Gene also sold his entire series of “fun” shots to a collector during a recent exhibit in Arizona. He conceived and photographed the CD packaging for Freddy Cole’s Cole Does Bennett, Melvin Sparks’s Groove On Up and Ray Mantilla’s Good Vibrations, all for the HighNote and Savant labels. In addition, Gene recently gave his Advanced Lighting photography lecture at The Hallmark Institute of Photography in Massachusetts and at the WPPI Photo convention in Las Vegas. [June 2006]
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