Born in Texas in 1925, Ted Williams was raised in Kansas and Michigan and at a young age he served in the United State Coast Guard in the North Atlantic and the Western Pacific during World War Two. After his service, Williams studied art and music, playing the saxophone and clarinet before attending the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Using the artistically vibrant background of Chicago as his home base, he traveled around the United States and abroad during his career as a photojournalist for Time, Newsweek, Ebony, and Look magazines. Williams utilized his background in and passion for music when he covered the burgeoning jazz scene for Down Beat, Playboy, and Metronome. A varied talent, he also covered the Vietnam War and the 1968 Olympics, as well as working as a partner and cinematographer for FORO 70, a small educational and documentary film production company.

From the early 1970s until passing away in 2009, Williams worked as a freelance photographer and cinematographer in Los Angeles. His work, especially with musicians such as Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, and Tony Bennett has been recognized around the work and in 1996, Williams had a one-man show, “Jazz: A Chicago Groove,” at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago. His work was also featured in the “Images of Music: Classical Through Rock” exhibition at the SOHO Triad Fine Arts Gallery in New York City. Throughout his entire career, Williams stayed true to his passion and his art, as he once explained, “I just have a deep love for the music, the people, and the photography.” While his presence will be missed, his photography is an indication of the legacy he has left behind.