RIP, Herman Leonard, Iconic Photographer of Jazz

[elelle]

Sad, still, even at 87, the death of photographer Herman Leonard: NYT obituary.

He was one of my photographic heroes, as an example of doing a whole lot with minimal lighting, back in the days when it was rather difficult to do that with film limitations in a live music setting. You really had to know the science of photography then to take those shots, and to make the print fly in the darkroom.

From the NYTimes:

He was a master of jazz, except his instrument was a camera,” K. Heather Pinson, the author of “The Jazz Image” (University Press of Mississippi, 2010), a study of Mr. Leonard’s work, said on Tuesday. “His photographs are probably the single best visual representation of what jazz sounds like.”

Spare and stylized, Mr. Leonard’s work captured a world of shadow, silver and smoke: dark interiors, gleaming microphones and, threading through it all, cigarette smoke that leaped and twined as if it were an incarnation of the music itself.

The artists he shot were titans or soon to be, so renowned that each can be conjured with a single name: Ella, Duke, Dizzy, Billie, Miles, Frank. Carefully lighted and meticulously printed, Mr. Leonard’s photos retained the quality of candids, catching his subjects in moments of powerful intimacy.

[url=]Here’s one his most wonderful, to my mind. He captured the moment beautifully, in what was a challenging situation with what could be done with minimal lighting.

Thanks for seeing the beauty and translating it, Herman; fly on up like you made others fly!

[carnivorousplant]

Man, Miles Davis looks bad in that photograph!