Charles Stewart (May 21, 1927 – January 20, 2017) was an American photographer best known for his portraits of jazz singers and musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, and Miles Davis, as well as artists in the R&B and salsa genres.
[2] He received a Kodak Brownie camera as a present when he was 13 years old and used it that same day to take photos of Marian Anderson, who had come to visit his school Dunbar.
[2] While in college, his friendship with photographer Herman Leonard helped him make connections with record companies in New York City.
His clients would include Impulse, Mercury, Reprise and Verve, for whom he took cover photos of artists such jazz and R&B icons as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, appearing on more than 2,000 albums and in publications including Esquire, Paris Match and The New York Times, as well as in the Encyclopedia of Jazz by jazz journalist Leonard Feather.
"[3] During the 1950s and 1960s he was turned down for more lucrative advertising photography when agencies said that their clients "don't have black people down here sweeping the floors" and would rather resign the account than accept him.