Veteran music photographer Jak Kilby died on 3 January, aged 72. He was in London at the time of his death, though he had lived in Malaysia with his family for many years. He photographed countless musicians including Nina Simone, Billy Higgins, Thomas Mapfumo, Miriam Makeba, Courtney Pine, Fela Kuti, Ravi Shankar, Tinariwen, Toumani Diabate and Youssou N’Dour, and his photographs are featured on dozens of Emanem releases.

Jak's work appeared in the pages of The Wire as far back as issue 1, Summer 1982. In the two-page feature “Camden On Camera”, Jak produced a photographic document of performers at that year's Jazz Festival: Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Billy Higgins, Muhal Richard Abrams, and The Art Ensemble Of Chicago were among those snapped. He continued working with The Wire for over four decades, covering many composers, free music and jazz musicians including Wynton Marsalis, Billy Bang, Abdullah Ibrahim and Paul Rutherford. He was a faithful documenter of the UK improv scene. Portraits and performance shots of Trevor Watts, Maggie Nicols, Yoko Ono, David Toop, Derek Bailey and many others ran alongside numerous features over the years. Notably, time spent touring with Spontaneous Music Ensemble made for a vast personal collection on the group, some of which can be seen in Daniel Spicer's SME Primer in 2016 (The Wire 392).

Outside music, Kilby took photographs of Muslim life and culture all over the world.