Herman Leonard (1923-2010)
Charlie Parker,
Royal Roost, NYC, 1948
Gelatin silver
print, printed 2004
Signed, titled
& dated in ink in the margin
14 x 11 inches
Illustrated: The
Eye of Jazz: The Jazz Photographs of Herman Leonard, Viking, 1989, p. 25
Provenance: The
Artist to the present owner
Condition:
Pristine
LH-CHP10
Retail: $2400
Prices:
11 x 14-inch prints are open
editions; 10 to 50 exist of each image: $1800-3200
16 x 20-inch and 20 x 24-inch prints are
in editions of 50: $4500-22,000
Books:
L’Oeil de Jazz: Herman Leonard
(French Edition), 1985
The Eye of Jazz: Herman Leonard,
1990
Jazz Memories:
Herman Leonard, 1995
Jazz, Giants & Journeys: The Photographs of Herman Leonard, 2006
Jazz: Herman Leonard, 2010
Collections:
The Smithsonian Institution has the
entire set of photographs from Leonard's Images
of Jazz portfolio in its permanent collection.
BIO:
Herman Leonard
(March 6, 1923, in Allentown, PA, – August 14, 2010, in Los Angeles, CA) was an
American photographer known for his unique images of jazz icons.
After graduation (from Ohio
University), 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 Greenwich Village. Working
free-lance for various magazines, he spent his evenings at the Royal Roost and
then Birdland, where he photographed Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,
Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and others. . . . Using glass
negatives at the 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 his personal photographer . . . 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.
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. Following Hurricane
Katrina, Leonard moved to 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, Washington DC. 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. -- wikipedia