"...I can't make a distinction between what I like better, the photography or the jazz. I think it's all part of the same thing." --Herman Leonard
Herman Leonard, one of the twentieth century's finest photographers, passed away yesterday. He's usually identified as a "jazz photographer." And he wouldn't have disagreed.
But to leave it at that puts him into a box. And that would simply be wrong. His art had no limits.
This video, which was made before his death, serves as a beautiful tribute.
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PS A print of one of the photos that Leonard talks about in the video -- Ella Fitzgerald singing to an audience that includes Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman -- hangs on my dining room wall. It's one of the first things I see every morning, which makes me a very lucky man.
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