The Elegance of Time: Montreux Jazz Festival by Anoush Abrar

09 Jun. 2026

To mark its 60th edition, the Montreux Jazz Festival presents The Elegance of Time, a book showcasing over 150 portraits by Anoush Abrar. Amid the hustle and bustle of backstage at the Festival, Anoush Abrar often has only seconds to capture his portraits — a fleeting window he transforms into a timeless artistic gesture.

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PORTRAITS AND STORIES BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MJF

Anoush Abrar has been working closely with the Festival’s artists since 2018. The Elegance of Time revisits some of these rare moments: capturing Raye, visibly moved alongside her Swiss grandfather, in a portrait that would later feature on the cover of her album Live at Montreux; Marc Rebillet inviting Abrar onto the Lake Stage, before posing in his underwear in front of 5,000 spectators; photographing Grace Jones dressed as a vintage aviator in her room at the Montreux Palace; and documenting Quincy Jones during what would prove to be his final evening at Montreux.

“The Montreux Jazz Festival makes anything feel possible. It’s no wonder so many artists choose to take part. Of course, the Festival’s aura inspires them to leave their mark, but what really sets Montreux apart is the way people are made to feel at home here — a legacy of Claude Nobs, nurtured and carried forward through the years.“
Anoush Abrar

TIME AS THE FESTIVAL’S UNIFYING THREAD

Time is the thread that runs through this book, unfolding across some thirty stories. The Montreux Jazz Festival unfolds at its own distinctive rhythm, poised somewhere between the magic of the moment and the echoes of its storied past. A brief interlude each summer, where rare, and even legendary, moments are born. Measured in minutes, days or years, every story is anchored in a specific moment in time: 2.45am, the time when Sam Smith joined a late-night jam session alongside an African kora player; 16 days, the length of Jon Batiste’s stay, from the Festival’s opening day to its close; 1978, the year Gilberto Gil introduced Brazilian music to Montreux; or 11.15pm, when Benson Boone brought his concert to a close with an acrobatic dive from the Lake Stage.

« Giving each encounter the time it deserves, leaving space for spontaneity, for the unexpected. This perception of time is what gives Montreux its unmistakable elegance. In this serene setting, between the lake and the mountains, many artists choose to stay on a little longer. They reshape their tours to fit in with more intimate venues, and play long into the night. Here, time doesn’t close doors — it opens them.»
Mathieu Jaton, CEO Montreux Jazz Festival

A TESTAMENT TO AN EXTRAORDINARY CHAPTER: THE LAKE STAGE

The Elegance of Time also recounts the two unforgettable years of the Lake Stage, bringing a poetic close to this chapter in the Festival’s story. In 2024 and 2025, Anoush Abrar moved away from his fixed studio at the Convention Centre and adopted a fully mobile approach, photographing artists at the very heart of the Festival’s settings: the lake and surrounding mountains, as well as technical areas, dressing rooms and the stage itself. His portraits became delicate witnesses to a fleeting, extraordinary moment in time.

ABOUT ANOUSH ABRAR

Anoush Abrar is a renowned Swiss-Iranian photographer born in Tehran. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, he has made the exploration of hidden or hard-to-reach worlds his signature. Whether stepping into the cockpits of fighter jets or entering the closed circles of Kyoto’s geishas, he seeks complete immersion as a way of understanding. Portraiture is his chosen language, which he approaches with the same intensity whether his subject is an unknown face or a head of state, an international star or a forgotten figure. He works with light as his medium, and treats each subject with equal care, guided by the trace each encounter leaves behind on the viewer. Abrar has been nominated four times for the prestigious Taylor Wessing National Portrait Gallery Prize, and reached the final shortlist on two occasions. His portraits and projects have been exhibited in galleries around the world, and he has received a number of major awards.

CREDITS

Publisher : Montreux Jazz Festival
Photographs : Anoush Abrar
Texts : Steve Riesen (Montreux Jazz Festival)
Graphic Design : Marisa de Oliveira (alafolie)