Herman Leonard

Herman Leonard's love of jazz started at an early age, when he borrowed a camera from his brother and started hanging out in the jazz clubs in New York City. It was there, within the smokey rooms and poorly lit stages of Birdland and the Royal Roost, that Leonard honed his craft, practicing and perfecting his backlit lighting that makes his photographs so recognizable. 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.