Photographer
©Holly Maxson
Photographer
© Holly Maxson
Milt's Photographs
Milt began taking photographs of his friends in the l930s, and over the years, his collection grew to more than 60,000 black and white images. The work depicts an extensive range of jazz artists and popular performers in varied settings—on the road, in recording studios, at parties, and at home—over a period of six decades. In June 1981, he had his first solo photographic exhibition in Philadelphia, and since then, he has had exhibits across the country and in Europe.
In addition to being published in major periodicals, Milt’s photographs have appeared in numerous documentary films including The Brute and the Beautiful (1989), The Long Night of Lady Day (1990), A Great Day in Harlem (1994), Ken Burns’ mini-series Jazz (2001), Quincy (2018), and Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019).
© Chuck Stewart
Milt's Books

In 1988, Bass Line: The Stories & Photographs of Milt Hinton (Milt Hinton and David G. Berger) was published by Temple University Press. It was selected "Book of the Year " by JazzTimes.

In 1991, OverTime: The Jazz Photographs of Milt Hinton (Milt Hinton, David G. Berger, and Holly Maxson) with galleries of photographs of musicians, was published by Pomegranate ArtBooks.

Milt's final book Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life in Stories and Photographs (Hinton, Berger, and Maxson) was published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2009, and contains 255 of his iconic photographs. A cd of Milt's stories is also included in the hardbound volume.

The Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection
The approximately 60,000 black-and-white photographs taken by Milt Hinton between 1935 and 1999 comprise a major part of the Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection. Housed in New York City, the Collection is co-directed by David G. Berger and Holly Maxson and also contains over 5,000 color slides, hundreds of reference and exhibition-quality prints, and home movies.
Photo Galleries
When I first started out in the ’30s, I took pictures so I could show my family and friends that I’d really been to all those places and knew all those people. Several years later, the guys I was traveling with became my friends, and I shot things we all experienced so we could share them later.
But as time went on, I realized the importance of the world I was living in, and I decided to try and make a record of it for future generations. Being a musician gave me access, and consequently, some of the best photos I ever took were simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Of course, I had no idea that some of my shots would be used to document jazz history, but I’m glad I’ve lived to see it.
-------------- Milt Hinton
NOTE:
On the Road with Cab

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Cab Calloway, Florida, c. 1941

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Dizzy Gillespie, Chu Berry and Quentin "Butter" Jackson, Fox Theater, Detroit, c. 1940

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Jonah Jones and Butter Jackson, Hotel Elgin, Elgin, Illinois, c. 1942

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Cozy Cole (background), Hilton Jefferson, and bus driver, Alabama, c. 1940

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Jonah Jones and "Holmes" (Cab’s chauffeur), Little Rock, Arkansas, c. 1941

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Cozy Cole and two friends, outside the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, New York City, c. 1939

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Cozy Cole, Danny Barker, and Shad Collins, New Orleans, c. 1941

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Front row: Chu Berry, Rudolf Rivers and Butter Jackson; back row: Danny Barker, unknown, Cozy Cole, Tyree Glenn and Cliff (Cab Calloway's valet), railroad station, Atlanta, c. 1940

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Walter "Foots" Thomas, backstage, New York City, c. 1940

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Mona, Ike Quebec, Doc Cheatham, Mario Bauza, and Shad Collins, Georgia, c. 1950
In the Studios

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Perry Bradford, Eubie Blake (at piano), and Noble Sissle, NYC c. 1958

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Billie Holiday and Count Basie, television studio (Sound of Jazz rehearsal), New York City, 1957

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Billie Holiday, recording studio (her last recording session), New York City, 1959

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Barry Galbraith and Osie Johnson, recording studio, New York City, c. 1956

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Marion Evans and Tony Bennett, recording studio, New York City, 1967

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Aretha Franklin, recording studio, New York City, c. 1961

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Kai Winding and Tony Scott, recording studio, New York City, c. 1954

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Benny Goodman, concert rehearsal, New York City, c. 1956

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Jackie Gleason and Louis Armstrong, television studio, (Timex rehearsal), New York City, 1959

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Eubie Blake, concert (25th Anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival), the White House, Washington, D.C., 1978

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection In foreground:Ben Webster, Earle Warren, Coleman Hawkins; Count Basie (piano), Ed Jones (bass), and Freddie Greene (guitar), television studio (Sound of Jazz rehearsal), New York City, 1957

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Freddie Green and Jo Jones, television studio (Sound of Jazz rehearsal), New York City, 1957

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Billy Taylor, Nat Hentoff and Eddie Bert, recording studio, New York City, c. 1954

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Sam Cooke and Ernie Wilkins, recording studio, New York City, 1960

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Quincy Jones, recording studio, New York City, c. 1959
After the Studios

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Branford Marsalis and Jeff “Tain” Watts, NYC 1988

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Sarah Vaughan, Pearl Bailey, and Ella Fitzgerald, rehearsal, television studio, Pasadena, 1979

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Front row: George Wettling and Bud Freeman; Second row: Jo Jones, Gene Krupa, Sonny Greer; Third row: Miff Mole, Zutty Singleton, and Red Allen; Fourth row: Dickie Wells, Art Blakey, and Taft Jordan; Top row: Buck Clayton, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, and Hilton Jefferson, Esquire magazine photo shoot, Harlem, New York City, 1958

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Dizzy Gillespie, Grande Parade du Jazz, Nice, France, c. 1981

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Ron Carter and Bob Cranshaw, recording studio, New York City, c. 1971

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Jimmy Rushing, concert, Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, 1963

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Toots Thielemans, Eddie Daniels, and Dick Hyman, concert rehearsal, New York City, c. 1986

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Willie “The Lion” Smith and Duke Ellington at the piano, Duke's 70th birthday party, The White House, Washington, D.C., 1969

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Lynn Seaton, Rufus Reid, John Clayton, Eddie Gomez, Milt, Richard Davis, Bill Crow, Major Holley, and Ron Carter, rehearsal (Milt's 80th birthday concert), JVC Jazz Festival, Town Hall, New York City, 1990

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Roy Hargrove, recording studio, New York City, 1991

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Jimmy Heath and Frank Wess, recording studio, New York City, 1989

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Barbra Streisand, recording studio, New York City, c. 1964

Photo by Milt Hinton © Milton J. Hinton Photographic Collection Benny Carter, Larry Wein, George Wein, and Earl Hines, Kool Jazz Festival, Honolulu, 1977
