Bill Gottlieb

The great (adjective used advisedly) photographer William P. Gottlieb died on Sunday at the age of 89. He hadn't made a photograph with a jazz theme for decades, but that didn't matter. The ones he shot in the forties and fifties are indelible images. Once you have seen his picture of 52nd Street in the rain, you won't forget it; nor his shots of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Sid Catlett, young Frank Sinatra and valuable, barely-remembered figures like Al Casey and Dave Lambert. For a thorough review of Bill Gottlieb's work, go to the Library of Congress site devoted to him. It includes a series of sound bites of his reminiscences and an extensive collection of his photographs. This is an instance of the nation preserving and honoring the work of one of its finest visual artists.