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Gary Leonard’s Pictures Are Worth a Million Words
Photographer Gary Leonard opened a gallery for his rare archival prints last month. The Apparel News has a mini-profile of the prolific photographer, who has documented most every Los Angeles ribbon-cutting, political ruckus or cool concert since the 1970s.
The name of Leonard’s downtown L.A. space is Take My Picture, Gary Leonard, which was also the title of his weekly columns which ran for years in the Los Angeles Reader, New Times and CityBeat. Leonard is also chief photographer of Los Angeles Downtown News and has published several photo anthologies, including Make the Music Go Bang (with writer Don Snowdon) which chronicles the L.A. punk-rock scene.
Now that print media - including its writers and photographers - are threatened more than ever, Leonard’s gallery returns photography to its essence: people looking at actual (not virtual) prints… and people getting their picture taken.
“In the interests of doing something different, I have set up a light and a backdrop where you can get your picture taken in the gallery,” Leonard told LAist.
Devoted to life in Los Angeles, Leonard is a civic institution. Someone should take his picture.
[ed. note: we did take his picture!]
Post by Jack Skelley/Photo courtesy of Gary Leonard. Note: Jack Skelley used to be one of the editors of Downtown News
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