Pitt Daryl - Photographer

DARRYL PITT BIOGRAPHY

Darryl Pitt was an editorial photographer before becoming an artist manager and driving force behind the launch of the New Age music phenomenon.

The principal of Depth of Field Management, Pitt represents renowned jazz artists The Bad Plus, Regina Carter, Kurt Elling and Dianne Reeves.  

Pitt is also the founder of the Macovich Collection of Meteorites, the world's foremost collection of aesthetic iron meteorites. Institutions that have acquired meteorites from Pitt include the Natural History Museum (London), the American Museum of Natural History (NYC), The Academy of Sciences (Beijing and Moscow) and the Smithsonian. In addition, Steven Spielberg, James Taylor, Jerry Bruckheimer, the late William Ziff and art collector Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed al-Thani are among those who have also acquired meteorites with a Macovich provenance—as has Ripley's Believe It or Not, which acquired a 1.5 ton meteorite from Pitt.

In the late 80s when few seemed to care for aesthetically shaped meteorites, Pitt traveled the world searching for extraterrestrial objets d'art. In his effort to generate public interest in meteorites in the mid 90s, Pitt made select specimens available in the first natural history auctions. For the first time meteorites were photographed as abstract sculpture and the value of meteorites—among the rarest objects on Earth—shot skyward. For years the vast majority of meteorites offered at traditional auction houses had a Macovich imprimatur. Arts & Antiques magazine even named a meteorite with a Macovich provenance one of its "100 Top Treasures of the Year," the first time a meteorite was so designated. More significantly, as a result of Pitt's efforts to popularize meteorites, meteorite research has enjoyed an unparalleled boon. The news of Pitt's auction sales became the catalyst for a legion of new meteorite hunters to scour the world's deserts for meteorites—resulting in the recovery of scores of scientifically invaluable meteorites including dozens of new specimens from the Moon and Mars. 

The son of a big band musician, Pitt was born in Detroit in 1955. He attended the University of Michigan before moving to New York City where he joined the staff of Rolling Stone. Pitt's photographic work has appeared in numerous publications including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Playboy, Der Spiegel and Paris Match. He was a tour photographer for musicians such as Crosby, Stills & Nash and for several years was the official photographer of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Album cover credits include releases by Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock. While working in Montreux in 1981, Pitt met and later became the manager of Swiss musician, Andreas Vollenweider, who then sold twelve million albums as he ushered in the era of New Age instrumental music. 

In 1984 Pitt became the manager of another photographic subject, Michael Brecker, widely considered the most influential saxophonist since Coltrane and a 15-time Grammy winner. With Pitt's support, Brecker commenced his solo recording career, and the two worked closely until Brecker's death in 2007. In 2000, nearly twenty years after having taken the photos for her debut album, Pitt became the manager of Dianne Reeves, the world’s foremost female jazz vocalist.

Pitt had stopped taking photos for nearly eighteen years before he began to photograph flowers in 2005.  

In February 2012, teaming with partner Dave Gheesling, Pitt acquired the largest meteorite from the first shower of Martian meteorites to occur in 100 years, which is soon to be a centerpiece exhibit at the Natural History Museum (formerly the British Museum of Natural History).  In April 2012, they learned it wasn't the largest meteorite—but then they snagged that one too.