Herman Leonard
Herman Leonard (born 1923 in Pennsylvania) is an American photographer known for his unique images of jazz icons. 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. These sleeves for Clef Records from 1956 show combine his images with strong colour in a simple and bold graphic style. 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 in Washington, D.C.