Brian Smith, photographer of the British blues boom, dies aged 82

Brian Smith, the photographer who played a role in the British blues boom of the 1960s, has died aged 82. His images of American blues and R&B artists appeared on album sleeves, magazines and later on CDs and box sets. Smith created defining photographs of artists including Howlin’ Wolf, T Bone Walker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Berry and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

His work from the 1960s also captured visits by Little Richard, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Carl Perkins and Duane Eddy. He developed his interest in the music after seeing Lonnie Donegan in 1954 and used an Ilford Sportsman camera at the 1962 American Folk Blues festival at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, photographing T Bone Walker, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.

He became the unofficial in-house photographer at the Twisted Wheel club and in 1964 helped set up R&B Scene magazine, cultivating promoters and requesting interviews and backstage passes: "It saved me a fortune in tickets," he recalled. In the late 1970s and 1980s record companies used his archive for reissues; he supplied photos to MCA for its US reissue programme of Chess recordings and UK labels such as Ace and JSP also used his images.

Germany’s Bear Family box set of Chuck Berry issued in 2014 contains about 50 of his photos.

Key Topics

Culture, Brian Smith, American Folk Blues, Free Trade Hall, Twisted Wheel, Chuck Berry