Those who don’t know master photographer Joe Smith’s work have the opportunity to correct that with a retrospective exhibition entitled Jazz Island at the Hotel Phoenicia’s Palm Court Lounge, which is running until Saturday to coincide with the Malta Jazz Festival and the return of legend Chick Corea after an absence of 29 years.

Joe HendersonJoe Henderson

Smith has been following the Malta Jazz Festival since the very first edition, photographing the greats of the jazz world on his own terms. Like the greatest sports photographers, he is able to capture fractional moments of time that define the performers and the spaces they occupy. These spaces are as much musical as they are human, the performer in the performer’s environment.

Smith being a perfectionist, it is the negative space that the performer moves into which makes the shot. Frozen in time, the faces of greats who are no longer with us – like Charlie Haden, Paul Motion and Blue Note’s Joe Henderson – are visible thanks to Smith’s gift for capturing essence.

These portraits in black and white, which seem to capture the eternal spirit of jazz, were all shot in Malta.

Smith’s blacks are of the richest, deepest palette, making the entire photographic space syncopate with the subjects of his work. This space is not emptiness, but sometimes a backdrop for his famous jazz subjects. Other times, the subjects are a reflection of their energy as they gesture dramatically on stage, or the counterpoint as they reveal with an unexpected facial expression, part of a heightened sense of live performance.

Mark Guiliana, Joe Sanders, Marcus Roberts, Lincoln Goynes, Richard Bona, Esperanza Spalding and Tom Harell are just some of the performers featured in the exhibition. Suspended in time, the word for every image is ‘evocative’, giving a new perspective on the jazz greats that have performed at the Malta Jazz Festival over the years.

The entire exhibition has been simmered down to 21 prints, the cream of thousands of shots, the blink of an eye across almost 30 years.

Here negative space fixes the mood and story of every image, creating a context in which the evident feelings of these human beings connecting with other human beings through jazz music is suspended forever, feelings amplified by the black and the white in each image.

Following previous summer exhibitions at the Hotel Phoenicia by Jeni Caruana and Charles ‘City’ Gatt, also to coincide with the Malta Jazz Festival, this exhibition by Joe Smith at the iconic landmark is an example of Maltese artistic talent, and as the featured visual artist for the 2018 European Capital  of Culture the hotel could not have made a better choice.

The Jazz Island exhibition at the Hotel Phoenicia, including this shot of guitarist Joao Bosco, showcases the work of Malta’s Joe Smith.The Jazz Island exhibition at the Hotel Phoenicia, including this shot of guitarist Joao Bosco, showcases the work of Malta’s Joe Smith.

Brian BladeBrian Blade

Paul MotianPaul Motian

Ambrose AkinmusireAmbrose Akinmusire

Charlie HadenCharlie Haden

Joe SandersJoe Sanders

Avishai CohenAvishai Cohen

Lincoln GoynesLincoln Goynes

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