Tim Dickeson photos

Tim Dickeson

Tim Dickeson is a British photographer with nearly 40 years of experience having taken up music photography in his late teens before moving into photo journalism.

Early in his professional career Dickeson worked for a local south-coast newspaper and controlled the office diary. This meant he was able to select his work as a photo journalist and so specialised in music, photographing many of the top rock bands of the time.

By the late 1990s it had become difficult for freelance and staff photographers to photograph the top pop acts, who increasingly wanted direct control of their images. Consequently Tim turned his focus to the jazz world and was welcomed with open arms by the numerous artists only too happy to be photographed by him.

Having also moved into travel photography, Dickeson found that he was able to combine his love of travel with his love of jazz when in 1998 he first covered the Malta Jazz Festival.  He became friends with internationally acclaimed music photographer David Redfern and musician and photographer Tim Motion and they introduced him to more European festivals, which helped him establish his jazz photography career.

Dickeson has been supplying renowned publications Jazzwise magazine and the Jazz Journal with images for around 20 years and continues to do so. He also writes an annual Jazz Festival article for Jazzwise listing the main European festivals and their programmes - The printed Jazzwise magazine and the website also feature his articles and reviews from festivals.

In 2008, Dickeson founded the jazz label Edition Records with the pianist, and now CEO of the company, Dave Stapleton. The company has been acknowledged as one of the leading European labels with major artists such as Dave Holland, Kurt Elling, Lionel Louke and Jeff Ballard among many on its roster. Its success has given Dickeson, who continues as a director of the company, the opportunity to return to his main roots as a travel and festival photographer.

We have showcased a small selection of Tim's work taken at festivals in the UK and in Europe. This includes a wide variety of photographs selected from collections taken at various events of the last 15 years. Predominantly stage based, his images reflect the artists's dynamism and joy of performing.

Photographs have been ordered alphabetically by the artists's surname.

All images in this collection have been reproduced here and on other digital media of the National Jazz Archive with the kind permission of Tim Dickeson. Copyright © Tim Dickeson. All rights reserved.