“Above all, enjoy the music” - Herman Leonard
LOS ANGELES – Jazz scene photographer Herman Leonard, famous for his smoky, backlighted black-and-white photos of such greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra, has died. He was 87.
AP – In this photo provided by Jim McHugh, photographer Herman Leonard is seen at his home in Pasadena, California
Leonard, who moved to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina flooded his New Orleans home and destroyed thousands of his prints, died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, family spokeswoman Geraldine Baum said on his website. The cause of death wasn't disclosed. Leonard was considered one of the great mid-century jazz scene photographers. He started in the late 1940s and left a rich chronicle of a musical era with photos taken in New York, Paris and London through the 1960s.
The Smithsonian has more than 130 Leonard photographs in its permanent collection. He was studying photography at Ohio University when he was called to duty in the U.S. Army during World War II. He returned to college and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1947.
He moved to New York the following year, after an apprenticeship with famed portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh taking pictures of Albert Einstein, Martha Graham and other cultural icons. He then became immersed in the jazz scene, making deals with club owners to photograph rehearsals and giving them photos for their marquees.
Using a large 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera, he shot Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and countless other jazz greats in the smoky haze of jazz clubs. In 1956, he was Marlon Brando's personal photographer on a trip to the Far East.
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