Drum: PHOTOGENIC
time in achieving lofty positions in business or anything
else. So they went into the arts. It didn’t matter in the
arts whether you were black or green, if you could play
the instrument.” Except that if you were black, I remind
him, you just couldn’t sit at the same table as most of
the people who had come to see you play.
“ I just hung out. I was just hanging
around and shooting pictures of the
people I liked. Fortunately, the early
work was strictly for myself and not
commissioned jobs for magazines or
albums. So I had total freedom of
expression.”
Indeed, one of the most moving things about Herman
Leonard’s photography is that he has never been a mere
‘tourist’ (on the outside looking in) but a participant
(describing the inside from the inside) in all that he
photographs. This is, I believe, why his photographs
resonate with a special intimacy and nobility. In other
words, his process directly illustrates the importance
(and benefits) of actual participation in the world that
we inhabit.
There is a clear and unpretentious symbiotic
relationship between Herman and the subjects of his
work, hence the viewer can feel the joy, the genius, the
power of ‘being there’. Not to mention his sheer »
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