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Joanne Leonard's 'Being In Pictures'

by Claire O'Neill

Although Joanne Leonard knew nothing of sports, she was one of two official photographers for the U.S. team in the 1972 Winter Olympics. But it's not professional photographs that typify her portfolio or summarize her career. It's images of friends and family.

  • Sonia, 1966 remains one of Leonard's most praised photographs. This image of her very pregnant sister-in-law epitomizes Leonard's use of light to set the tone.
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    Sonia, 1966 remains one of Leonard's most praised photographs. This image of her very pregnant sister-in-law epitomizes Leonard's use of light to set the tone.
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  • Two children and lily, by Joanne Leonard and Judith Fuss Adell, circa 1960. Leonard considers this her first photograph, taken when she was learning the trade at a local high school.
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    Two children and lily, by Joanne Leonard and Judith Fuss Adell, circa 1960. Leonard considers this her first photograph, taken when she was learning the trade at a local high school.
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  • Lupe's kitchen, 1970s. Quiet domestic scenes recur in Leonard's book.
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    Lupe's kitchen, 1970s. Quiet domestic scenes recur in Leonard's book.
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  • Picture taking and posing. Maternal portraits of children also appear frequently.
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    Picture taking and posing. Maternal portraits of children also appear frequently.
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  • Marjorie Rosenfeld Leonard, San Francisco, 1968. Leonard notes the profound influence her mother had on her career. "I knew she wasn't a typical mom of the 1950s," Leonard says. Her mother's role as a professional encouraged Leonard to follow suit, down an unbeaten path of feminist photography.
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    Marjorie Rosenfeld Leonard, San Francisco, 1968. Leonard notes the profound influence her mother had on her career. "I knew she wasn't a typical mom of the 1950s," Leonard says. Her mother's role as a professional encouraged Leonard to follow suit, down an unbeaten path of feminist photography.
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  • Alfred Leonard sleeping, Connecticut, 1970s. Leonard has frequently photographed sleeping figures. To her, those quiet moments provide an opportunity to reflect on relationships.
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    Alfred Leonard sleeping, Connecticut, 1970s. Leonard has frequently photographed sleeping figures. To her, those quiet moments provide an opportunity to reflect on relationships.
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  • This photo shows Leonard's twin sister Elly, with her twins Joe and Anna, West Newton, Mass., 1969.
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    This photo shows Leonard's twin sister Elly, with her twins Joe and Anna, West Newton, Mass., 1969.
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  • Four old friends with babies, Los Angeles, 1967. This image of mothers and fussy babies challenges the dominant image of motherhood at the time. One theme that Leonard routinely explores is the space between ideals and reality.
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    Four old friends with babies, Los Angeles, 1967. This image of mothers and fussy babies challenges the dominant image of motherhood at the time. One theme that Leonard routinely explores is the space between ideals and reality.
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  • Reunion of lifelong friends, Los Angeles, 1968. Friends since grade school, the women gathered here are still friends, 40 years after the photograph was taken. Leonard, the fourth friend, captured the moment.
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    Reunion of lifelong friends, Los Angeles, 1968. Friends since grade school, the women gathered here are still friends, 40 years after the photograph was taken. Leonard, the fourth friend, captured the moment.
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  • Exterior view of house in West Oakland, Calif., circa 1963, where Leonard lived with her then-husband.
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    Exterior view of house in West Oakland, Calif., circa 1963, where Leonard lived with her then-husband.
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    Oakland Museum of California
  • Bride throws bouquet, West Oakland, 1970. By participating in neighborhood improvement efforts in Oakland, Leonard befriended many community members and photographed them often.
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    Bride throws bouquet, West Oakland, 1970. By participating in neighborhood improvement efforts in Oakland, Leonard befriended many community members and photographed them often.
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    Oakland Museum of California
  • This photo was exhibited in a collection called "Our Town," inspired by Leonard's photography instructor John Collier Jr. Collier "urged his photo students to give their photographs to their subjects."
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    This photo was exhibited in a collection called "Our Town," inspired by Leonard's photography instructor John Collier Jr. Collier "urged his photo students to give their photographs to their subjects."
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    Oakland Museum of California
  • Another Morning (sleeping houseguest), circa 1972
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    Another Morning (sleeping houseguest), circa 1972
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    Stanford University Art Museum
  • Julia with hands on hips, circa 1982. Leonard's portfolio is also largely a reflection on what it has meant to be a single mother from the 1970s onward.
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    Julia with hands on hips, circa 1982. Leonard's portfolio is also largely a reflection on what it has meant to be a single mother from the 1970s onward.
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  • Romanticism is Ultimately Fatal. Collage became an important part of Leonard's work, and her works can now be found in many art history textbooks. While Leonard's photographs portray light moments, the collages are born of more traumatic experiences, such as the end of a marriage, a miscarriage and her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's.
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    Romanticism is Ultimately Fatal. Collage became an important part of Leonard's work, and her works can now be found in many art history textbooks. While Leonard's photographs portray light moments, the collages are born of more traumatic experiences, such as the end of a marriage, a miscarriage and her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's.
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    Collection of Manuel Neri

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Her book, Being in Pictures: An Intimate Photo Memoir, is the product of nearly five decades behind the lens — a lens that has seen private moments as well as public scenes of protest, conflict and community events. Leonard's effort has been to bridge this gap between private and public imagery, developing a genre she called "intimate documentary." Her book interweaves photography, collage work and personal narrative to tell both her own story and the story of art in general.

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Portrait of Joanne Leonard, 1972,

by Joan Murray

As a young woman in the 1960s, Leonard faced a male-dominated vocation that lacked this type of introspective storytelling. By turning the camera on her own life, she managed to digest the tide of world events, and give them personal weight. She could contrast her own idealized family images with photos from the Vietnam War, for example, to raise questions about fiction and reality.

A very recently retired professor at the University of Michigan, Leonard writes, "[M]y camera has always sought the beauty and light in a moment." And thumbing through 250 pages of photos and photo collages, one notes precisely that. Her father, a refugee from Nazi Germany, sleeps with a smile; a very pregnant sister-in-law hangs laundry to dry; a bride throws her bouquet from a balcony. It's a quiet, dreamy commentary on what it has meant to be a twin, a single mother and a female artist over the past 50 years.

Leonard's collages can be found in art history textbooks, and her photographs are now in various museums. And she's still wielding a camera. To learn more, listen to Dick Gordon's interview with Leonard on American Public Media's "The Story."

By Claire O'Neill

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