Exhibit of jazz photos by Herb Snitzer to open May 16 at Sheldon Art Galleries

The Sheldon Art Galleries will celebrate the opening of the new exhibition Herb Snitzer: Jazz Photographs from the Last Years of Metronome with a complimentary wine and cheese reception from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 16 (which is also the date of the next Grand Center Gallery Walk).

As the name implies, the exhibit focuses on the work that freelance photographer Herb Snitzer made during the late 1950s and early 1960s for yesteryear jazz magazine Metronome. Snitzer's career spans more than 50 years, including work for top national publications such as Life, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, Fortune, and Time as well as for the New York Times and Herald Tribune. In 1958, he began freelancing for Metronome, becoming photography editor, and then associate editor of the magazine in 1960. During those years, he met, befriended and photographed many jazz greats including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Count Basie, and Nina Simone. Still active in his 80s, Snitzer now lives in Florida, where he continues to do freelance and fine art photography with a special interest in issues of civil and social rights.

The exhibit was curated by historian and jazz specialist Benjamin Cawthra and will continue in the Sheldon Art Galleries' History of Jazz Gallery through September 20. Cawthra, an assistant professor of history at California State University - Fullerton, previously spent nine years working at the Missouri Historical Society, where he researched and curated numerous exhibitions, including Miles: A Miles Davis Retrospective, the first major museum exhibition on Davis' life. An exhibition catalog, published by the Sheldon Art Galleries with an essay by Cawthra and a foreword by Gallery director Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, accompanies the exhibition, and a limited edition portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints of some of Snitzer's greatest jazz photographs, published by Palm Press, Concord, MA, also will be available for purchase.

Gallery hours are noon to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays; noon to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays; 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays; and one hour prior to Sheldon performances and during intermission. Admission is free. For more information on the exhibition, visit the Galleries’ Web site.