Herman Leonard: master photographer
I had the privilege of seeing a show of Herman Leonard’s work here at SMC in Santa Monica last night. Many may recognize some of Leonard’s iconic portraits taken during his time immersed in the NYC jazz scene in the late 40’s and 50’s, like the image of Dexter Gordon seen here.
Photographing such notables as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk and Miles Davis, Leonard became a fixture of the jazz scene, his photographs gracing the covers of more than 200 albums.
Unfortunately 8000 of his prints were lost in Katrina as his New Orleans home was destroyed. Luckily the negatives were all saved and beautiful new prints were created by a master b&w printer here in Santa Monica.
It’s interesting to note the differences between the old and new prints. It’s hard to say from viewing various reproductions online, but to me the new prints seem to have a bit more contrast and often more noticeably burned in corners and attention taken to blown out light sources to help focus the attention on the subject. (Notice the how much lighter the sheet music and pant leg appear here in an older print).
Old or new, the prints were inspiring in themselves and it was quite a treat to see the work of a jazz photography legend.
Ahhh, which is why digital format has its merits. Just that if a storm hits, I’ll be rushing to unplug my drives and scurrying fro my DVD backups.
……. heck, actually I’ll just bring my gears. 