William Ellis

William Ellis was born in Liverpool in 1957. Initially a self-taught photographer, he began his professional career in 1979. Having specialized in jazz for the past 20 years, his images attract to attention of jazz cognoscenti worldwide. Ellis describes his own passion for jazz stating “Brilliant musicians, instruments, and stages all with their story to tell, that’s where I’m at.”

Although based in England, he is recognized as having created an important documentation of the contemporary world jazz scene in Africa, Europe and the Americas.  Ellis’s works focus on capturing the passion and feeling of exhilaration of this challenging genre. Indeed he aims to portray the energy, expression and atmosphere of what is happening on and off stage. Ellis recognizes the universality of music stating, “all the way from Dizzy and Miles to here and now in the Americas, Africa, Australasia and Europe I’ve discovered that music and a smile is the language of the world."