USA

Bert Stern was born October 2, 1929. He was the son of Jewish immigrants and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After dropping out of high school at the age of 16, he gained a job in the mail room at Look magazine. He became art director at Mayfair magazine, where Stern learned how to develop film and make contact sheets, and started taking his own pictures. In 1951, Stern was drafted into the US Army and was sent to Japan and assigned to the photographic department. By the late 1970s Stern returned to the U.S. to photograph portraits and fashion. With Aram Avakian, he co-directed Jazz on a Summer's Day (1959), a documentary film record of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. He passed away at the age of 83.

Filmography

Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959)