William Ellis - The One LP Project
20th May – 28th June 2026
Gallery 103, Trongate 103
The exhibition coincides with Glasgow International Jazz Festival 10th - 14th June 2026 . There will be a Jazz Festival preview of the exhibition on Tuesday 9th June 6-8pm. William will also give an informal talk on the exhibition and some of his encounters with those within it on Saturday 13th June at 3pm in Trongate 103 Foyer Gallery.
One LP is a unique and critically acclaimed portrait photography project that explores the inspirational qualities of recordings and the impact that they have on people’s lives. Each portrait features the subject holding a recording that is of great personal significance to them. The photograph is accompanied by a short interview that explores the meaning and value of the selected album. One LP has come to represent a journey into another’s soul: the album that each artist selected is a part of them: their past, present and future.
“The project commenced in 2010 as a response to conversations with musicians about their relationship with the work of other artists encountered via recordings, in particular, conversations that had focused on albums that had profoundly moved the subjects. As a conversation is of course transient – usually committed only to memory - I decided to create a format that would enable me to document my interactions with the artists. The One LP Project is the outcome - something that excavates layers of memory, influence, being and uniqueness.” William Ellis, 2026
The project, conceived in the jazz world has been extended and now includes around 400 people in a spectrum of occupations in the creative milieu - artists, academics, broadcasters, film makers, musicians, music fans, photographers, record producers and writers. For this specially compiled exhibition at Trongate 103, there will be over 120 portraits and interviews on display, including some which are featured in a chapter of a new book entitled Rethinking Miles Davis, published by Oxford University Press in the year of the centenary of Miles Davis’ birth.
Image: Gregory Porter © William Ellis
Gregory Porter - One LP: Donny Hathaway 'Live' released 1972
"The Donny Hathaway Live album is so special because it captures - with full concentration - the thing that's special in live performance. That communication, that exchange of audience and artist. There's back and forth conversation, the women and the men in the audience are screaming things back to Donny and Donny's of course responding musically - and responding incredibly musically. You can feel the emotion in the room as soon as the needle hits the record. That communication - it's not just jazz, it's not just soul, it's human to human. That exchange between humanity is just beautiful to see. It happens on Donny Hathaway Live." - Gregory Porter: Band on the Wall, Manchester, 2012
The exhibition consists of predominantly jazz artists, as well as some reggae artists, record company people and visual artists photographed in New York, Los Angeles and Jamaica. Prominent photographers included are Terry O’Neill, Jürgen Schadeberg, Lynn Goldsmith and Bob Gruen. At Glasgow International Jazz Festival, artists photographed include Benny Golson, Carol Kidd, Terence Blanchard, and Warren Vache.
The exhibition coincides with Glasgow International Jazz Festival 10th - 14th June 2026 . There will be a Jazz Festival preview of the exhibition on Tuesday 9th June 6-8pm.
w@william-ellis.com @williamellisfoto
Banner Image: Christian Scott © William Ellis
Inset Image: Carol Kidd © William Ellis
