Herman Leonard was an American photographer known for his unique images of jazz icons died he was , 87.
(March 6, 1923, in Allentown, Pennsylvania [1] – August 14, 2010, in Los Angeles, California)
Life
Leonard's parents, Joseph Leonard and Rose Morrison, were Romanian Jewish immigrants who emigrated from Yassi, Romania, to the United States.[2][3]Leonard earned a BFA degree in photography in 1947 from Ohio University, although his college career was interrupted by a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during World War II. In the military he served as a medical technician in Burma, while attached to Chiang Kai Shek's Chinese troops fighting the Japanese.
After graduation, he apprenticed with portraitist Yousuf Karsh for one year. Karsh gave him valuable experience photographing celebrities and public personalities such as Albert Einstein, Harry Truman and Martha Graham.
In 1948, Leonard opened his first studio in New York's Greenwich Village. Working free-lance for various magazines, he spent his evenings at the Royal Roost and then Birdland, where he photographed the ongoing roster of jazz musicians such as Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and others. The number of shots possible at a time was limited. Using glass negatives at this time, Leonard increased the sensitivity of the plates by exposing them to mercury vapor.
After working for jazz record producer Norman Granz, who used his work on album jackets, Leonard was employed in 1956 by Marlon Brando as his personal photographer to document an extensive research trip in the Far East. Following his return, Leonard moved to Paris, photographing assignments in the fashion and advertising business and as European correspondent for Playboy Magazine. His last flurry of photographing jazz musicians dates from this period. Among the features he shot, one behind the Iron Curtain nearly landed him in a Polish jail.
In 1980, Leonard, with his wife Elisabeth and two children, Shana and David, moved from Paris to the island of Ibiza, where he remained until 1988, when he relocated to London with his children. It was here that Leonard had his first exhibition of his work at the Special Photographers Company in Notting Hill. The exhibition was visited by over ten thousand people, including singers Sade and Bono of U2. The show toured the United States in 1989, and Leonard briefly moved to San Francisco. After an exhibition at A Gallery for Fine Photography in New Orleans, he fell in love with the city and made it his home for the next fourteen years, immersing himself in the city's lively jazz and blues scene.
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Leonard's home and studio when the 17th Canal Levee broke near his home. The photographer and his family lost much property, including 8,000 prints, but his negatives were protected in the vault of the Ogden Museum in New Orleans.[4] Following Hurricane Katrina, Leonard moved to Studio City, California, and re-established his business there, working with music and film companies and magazines.
Leonard's jazz photographs, now collector's items, are a unique record of the jazz scene of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and his collection is now in the permanent archives of American Musical History in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In 2008, long-time friend Tony Bennett presented Leonard with the coveted Lucie Award at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City. In June 2009, Leonard was the commencement speaker for the 2009 graduating class of Ohio University, at which time he also received an honorary doctorate.
He worked with musician Lenny Kravitz on a project in the Bahamas during January 2010.[5]
Louisiana Public Broadcasting, under president Beth Courtney, produced the documentary Frame after Frame: The Images of Herman Leonard.
21st Editions recently released a limited edition book entitled Listen: Herman Leonard and His World of Jazz, signed and with an introduction by Quincy Jones. [[1]]
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