Herman Leonard (March 6, 1923, in
Allentown, Pennsylvania – August 14, 2010, in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
) was an American photographer known for his unique images of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
icons.
Early life and education
Leonard was born in
Allentown, Pennsylvania to Joseph Leonard and Rose Morrison, who were Romanian Jewish immigrants who emigrated from
Iaşi to the U.S.
Leonard gained a
BFA degree in photography in 1947 from
Ohio University
Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...
, although his college career was interrupted by a tour of duty in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. In the military, he served as a medical technician in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
while attached to
Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese troops
fighting the Japanese.
Career
After graduation, he apprenticed with portraitist
Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh, FRPS (December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was a Canadian-Armenian photographer known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century.
An Armenian ...
for one year. Karsh gave him valuable experience photographing public personalities such as
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
,
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, and
Martha Graham.
In 1948, Leonard opened his first studio in New York's
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
at 200 Sullivan St. Working free-lance for various magazines, he spent his evenings at the
Royal Roost
The Royal Roost was a jazz club located at 1580 Broadway in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City.
History
Ralph Watkins originally opened the Royal Roost as a chicken restaurant. After a difficult start, Watkins was persuaded by Si ...
and then
Birdland, where he photographed jazz musicians such as
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and actor. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gi ...
,
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
,
Dizzy Gillespie,
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
,
Duke Ellington,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
, 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
Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impres ...
, 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
The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.
The ter ...
. Following his return, Leonard moved to Paris, photographing assignments in the fashion and advertising business and as European correspondent for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'' magazine. He also photographed many French recording artists for Barclay Records, including Dalida, Charles Aznavour, Léo Ferré, Henri Salvador, Jacques Brel, Jean Ferrat, Les Chaussettes Noires, Eddy Mitchell, and Johnny Hallyday.
In 1980, Leonard, along 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
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...
. The exhibition was visited by over ten thousand people, including singers
Sade
Sade may refer to:
People
* Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine
* Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band
* Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WAB ...
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 heavily damaged Leonard's home 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.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Leonard moved to
Studio City
Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...
, California, and re-established his business there, working with music and film companies and magazines. During this time, he received a grant from the GRAMMY Foundation, that allowed for his vast library of photographic negatives to be digitally archived for future generations.
Leonard's jazz photographs, now valuable 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.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In 2008, long-time friend
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birt ...
presented Leonard with the coveted Lucie Award at a ceremony at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
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
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
during January 2010.
Obituary: Herman Leonard
''Daily Telegraph'', August 17, 2010
Louisiana Public Broadcasting
Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television stations serving the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stations are operated by the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, an agency c ...
, under president Beth Courtney, produced the documentary ''Frame after Frame: The Images of Herman Leonard''.
The BBC produced a film, (2011) "Saving Jazz", about Herman Leonard's struggles following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The film was directed by documentary filmmaker Leslie Woodhead.
In 2012, the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
presented a year-long retrospective, ''Herman Leonard: Documenting the Giants of Jazz''.
In 2013, The William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas
( The "Little Rock")
, government_type = Council-manager
, leader_title = Mayor
, leader_name = Frank Scott Jr.
, leader_party = D
, leader_title2 = Council
, leader_name2 ...
honored Herman Leonard's work with a major five-month exhibition, ''Jazz: Through the Eyes of Herman Leonard''. The exhibition included artifacts from many of the artists that Leonard photographed, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
. President Clinton has said that "Herman Leonard is the greatest jazz photographer in the history of the genre." A keynote address was given by Leonard's daughter Shana Leonard and Stephen Smith.
Sources
Herman Leonard's official website
Obituary, Financial Times (London), August 20, 2010
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Herman
1923 births
2010 deaths
21st-century American Jews
American expatriates in China
American expatriates in Myanmar
American people of Romanian-Jewish descent
Artists from Allentown, Pennsylvania
American portrait photographers
Concert photographers
Jazz photographers
Jewish American artists
Ohio University alumni
People from Studio City, Los Angeles
United States Army personnel of World War II