Duncan Schiedt

Duncan Schiedt (b. Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1921 - d. March 12, 2014) – Jazz photographer, author, and historian. An inductee of the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation Hall of Fame in 2000, Schiedt grew up on the east coast and lived in New York City and its suburbs from 1936 to 1950. It was during study overseas in England when he developed a true love for swing music, and after returning to the United States, he started taking pictures of jazz subjects as a hobby. During and after WW II, he worked in various capacities in the photography business, and he moved to Indiana in 1951. (He currently resides in Pittsboro in Northwest Hendricks County.) His passion for photography and jazz history has resulted in four books, including a Fats Waller biography and Indiana: A Jazz State. His most recent work is Jazz in Black and White (Indiana University Press, 2004), which includes select photographs and commentary spanning sixty-five years of work. Schiedt’s work has appeared in various other books and television documentaries, including Ken Burns’s famous ten-part jazz series on PBS. Some of Schiedt’s historic photographs can be purchased from his website.