5911&1/2 Franklin Ave.(near Bronson)
Hollywood, CA 90028
(Right next door to Counterpoint Records & Books)
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celebrity candids to cheesecake portraits, the exhibition consists
of 25 selected images from Los Angeles during the 1950's and 1960's,
bringing the viewer back to the Hollywood of our collective imagination.
Best
known for his informal shots of Marilyn Monroe, Leaf also
helped
shape the early careers of Shirley MacLaine, Jayne Mansfield and Natalie
Wood. Leaf began his career as a journalist for Time and The Saturday Evening Post. Later he snapped the first known western photographs of rebel leaders Mao Tse-Tung and Chou En-Lai while behind communist lines as the North China Manager of United Press. Later he traveled extensively through Europe and Latin America as a war correspondent with the precursor of the CIA, which lead to his illustrated book on the dancers of the West Indies, Isles of Rhythm. |
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Back in the states, Leaf bummed around from place to place,
documenting his travels much like Jack London or Thor Heyerdal. He
was nicknamed "Loose Leaf" by a group of hobos that he rode
the rails with while writing an account of their lives for a Reno
newspaper. In the early 50s, Leaf landed in Hollywood, quickly becoming
a fixture at press functions. Working as staff photographer for Movie
Play, Movie Time and Movie Spotlight magazines, he amassed a huge
portfolio of movie stars, rock stars, and candids. If one subject remains constant and obsessive in the work of Earl Leaf, it is women. Leaf shot nearly every day of his life and when he wasn't shooting the stars, he was shooting the young ladies who'd come to Hollywood with stars in their eyes. For years, he shot rolls of scantily clad women in his hidden bamboo-covered shack. Previously, the trend in Hollywood had been posing movie starlets in benign domestic settings; Leaf aimed to capture something more sensual and real. His unorthodox approach clicked big-time, revolutionizing the Hollywood publicity machine. He's remembered for his motto, "Down with the boudoir barricades; into the bedrooms with the cameras and the tripods." |
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Earl
Leaf died in 1980 at the age of 75, leaving behind a vast
estate of vintage photographs and negatives purchased by the Michael
Ochs Archives in 1991. For
an Interview discussing Earl Leaf
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