Jan Persson

Jan Persson (22 July 1943 – 15 November 2018) was a Danish freelance photographer who worked for Danish newspapers and magazines in and around Copenhagen.

Early on, he specialized in documenting the jazz scene, later also the visiting beat and rock musicians who visited Copenhagen during the 1960s and the 1970s. His works have been documented in a series of books and exhibitions (see bibliography and exhibitions) and his pictures are used on more than 1,000 album and CD covers.

Persson supplied photographs to Down Beat since 1962, Jazz Special (DK), Musica Jazz (IT), Melody Maker (UK) and Danish newspapers Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and Ekstra Bladet. His photographs were published by a number of magazines, reissue record companies, and documentary films on the history of both jazz and rock music. Persson's jazz and rock photographs feature American jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis to rock icons Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix.

His photographic archives have been exhibited internationally. More than 15,000 pictures are now in the files of Aalborg University in Denmark.

Persson received the Ben Webster Prize in March 2004.

Persson died in 2018 at age of 75 due to cancer in a hospice near Copenhagen. He was survived by his wife, MajBritt Persson, and three children from an earlier marriage, Christina Persson, Louise Persson, and Julie Lund.