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| Before Bill Greensmith was a photographer, he was a blues fan, and a very devoted one at that. Enamored with the rhythm and blues scene of the early 1960s, he spent most of his early teens in the popular clubs of his native London, where he took in the locals as well as American performers such as T-Bone Walker and Bo Diddley. It wasn't until the age of 16, when he was trying to figure out what to do with his life, that Greensmith first picked up a camera. "I thought photography was as good an idea as any!" he says with a laugh, and it turned out to be a fortuitous choice. Jobs were plentiful-studios at that time were always looking for photographic assistants of one sort or another-and it also led to his calling. "From there it didn’t take long before I decided it would be nice to shoot some pictures of blues artists," he notes. Thus began a career that has spanned four decades, and one that took him from the clubs of London to the thriving blues community of St. Louis, MO, where he now resides with his wife. "I was following a passion. I was taking photographs of people who I enjoyed and admired," he says, although at the time he wasn’t sure how far it would take him. "To be honest, right from the get-go I never, ever thought to myself that I could make a living out of this. I think a lot of photographers work at the job as a living, but they have a passion, something that interest them personally, and blues was mine.” To that end, Greensmith devoted much of his energy to shooting blues performers-ncluding the likes of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Freddie King-both in London and in the States. "It was very easy," he says. “When tours would come to London, I would go to rehearsals and sit backstage chatting with people, taking pictures, whatever. It was a lot more relaxed then; you could call people up, you could just present yourself at the stage door with your camera and your press pass, and you would be admitted.” Since that time, his photos have appeared on many blues albums, and he has done a variety of related work, as well; shooting for covers, interviews, stock, and whatever else was available. His passion even led to production. "There was a double Albert King album that I produced for Rhino Records about 10 years ago,” he says. "They used a lot of my photographs, plus I wrote the sleeve notes. In fact, it was even my track selection; I was very involved in that. And I produced an Ike Turner album for Rhino, as well." He and several others also ran Blues Unlimited, which was, according to Greensmith, “the world’s first blues magazine,” and he compiled the award-winning A Blues Life (University of Illinois Press, November, 1999,) about blues great Henry Townsend. It won the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) for excellence in historical recorded sound research. Through it all, Greensmith preferred portraiture as a way to capture his subjects. "I wanted to show what drove these people,” he says, "because if you’re a blues artist, it's more than just playing music; it’s a lifestyle. It wasn’t just something that they chose to pick up for a while and then put down; it was their life. I always wanted to try and portray them in a way that would help explain who they were." Greensmith, who shoots almost exclusively in black and white, prefers Kodak film, especially Tri-X. He also uses Dyna-Lites, especially for location shoots, because they’re lightweight and portable. And, although he uses a variety of different Nikons for stage shots and candids, he prefers his Mamiya RB67 for portraiture. TO READ MORE ABOUT BILL GREENSMITH PICK UP THE DECEMBER ISSUE OF INCREDIBLE PHOTOGRAPHY |
