Phillip Leonian

Phillip Marshall Leonian (January 13, 1927 – September 15, 2016) was an American commercial photographer known for his images of people and objects in motion.[1][2] Active from the 1950s through the 1980s, he used stroboscopic effects and motion blur to capture movement within a single frame.[3] His multi-image photography has been compared to the works of Eadweard Muybridge[4] and Étienne-Jules Marey.[5]

Leonian specialized in advertising and editorial photography, and his work appeared in numerous ads and magazines, including Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and Time.[2] In the 1960s and 1970s, he contributed regularly to Sports Illustrated, producing cover photos of famous athletes such as Muhammad Ali[6] and basketball player Earl “the Pearl” Monroe.[7] Leonian's subjects also included figure skater Janet Lynn, long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine, and Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby.[2][8][9]

His 1971 photo of Rigby's balance beam routine was one of the 116 images encoded on the Voyager Golden Record. Astronomer Carl Sagan, who led the NASA committee in charge of curating the Golden Record, explained that his team had selected Leonian's multi-image photo for the interstellar time capsule because it managed to depict the full range of human motion. “It probably gives a better sense of how we move than anything else could have”, Sagan wrote.[10]

Later in life, Leonian lectured and wrote extensively on copyright, advising fellow photographers on how to retain the rights to their work.[11][12] He was also an inventor who held two patents for photographic equipment.[13][14]

Early life

Leonian was born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia.[2] His Armenian-born father, Leon H. Leonian (1888 – 1945), was a mycologist and professor of mycology at West Virginia University. An obituary published in Science said that Leon Leonian "established an international reputation in three distinct fields of science—plant diseases, the physiology of fungi, and plant breeding."[15] Phil's mother, Nell, taught in the university's English department.[16]

He first took up photography while he was a student at Morgantown High School.[2] After graduation, he served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during the Occupation of Japan.[16] From 1947 to 1950, he attended WVU, where he studied biology and chemistry.[3] Though he never graduated, his training in the scientific method led to a lifelong fascination with experimentation, which had a major influence on his photography.[1][3][17] (According to Popular Photography, Leonian was "always rethinking his methods and his hardware.")[18]

After leaving WVU, he studied at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California.[2] Years later, WVU's quarterly magazine referred to him as "one of the University’s more noted dropouts."[16]

Career

After graduating from the Brooks Institute, Leonian moved to New York City, where he got a job at a color photo lab. Working at the color lab—one of the few operating in the city at that time—allowed him to eavesdrop on New York's professional photographers and learn from their work.[1] Around the same time, he worked as a freelance photographer specializing in medical reportage. Once he had built up a portfolio, he began pursuing advertising and editorial gigs.[16]

Advertising photography

In the 1960s and 1970s, Leonian had a reputation as one of New York City's most in-demand advertising photographers.[1][16] In one prominent campaign from 1966, he worked with BBDO to produce ads for Philco color TVs. He used remote-controlled cameras to photograph the color picture on a Philco TV set—an industry first—and his untouched photos were then reproduced in ads that appeared in Life, Look, Reader’s Digest, The Saturday Evening Post, and TV Guide.[19]

In 1968, Leonian worked on a series of ads for AT&T. The company wanted consumers to place more extension phones in their homes, and the resulting ads used Leonian's trademark “motion/time visualizations” to illustrate the inconvenience of owning only one phone. In one photo, a walking woman turns around when she hears her telephone ring. In another, a woman descends a flight of stairs, then halts and doubles back upstairs. “It was a matter of slicing time, a fourth dimension of space, and effectively recreating it on two dimensions of paper,” wrote the creative team at N.W. Ayer, the ad agency behind the campaign.[20]

By the 1970s, Leonian could command fees as high as $2,000 a day. “He makes top bucks because he is the best there is at showing people and objects in motion", proclaimed The Village Voice.[1]

In addition to Philco and AT&T, his corporate advertising clients included IBM, Bayer, Avis, Honeywell, Minolta, Zeiss, Jockey, General Foods, General Motors, and General Electric.[1][2][21]

Editorial photography

Leonian's photos were published in more than a dozen magazines, including Time, Newsweek, Essence, Look, Sports Illustrated, and World Tennis. His work also appeared in a number of vintage photography magazines, including Popular Photography, Camera 35, Travel & Camera, and U.S. Camera and Travel (which eventually became Travel + Leisure).

Sports photography

Leonian began working with Sports Illustrated in 1968. His first assignment—shooting an Olympic pentathlon—allowed him to play around with new tools and techniques, including the multiple-image effects that would become his Sports Illustrated trademark.[3]

Within a year, he was photographing Muhammad Ali, who posed in a king's robe and crown for the May 5, 1969 cover story.[6] Ali spent five days working out in Leonian's studio.[16] He even sparred a bit with the photographer, who claimed to have been the first to observe some of the boxer's habits. “For example, he will not blink his eyes when the other fighter is in range,” Leonian said. “If he has to blink, he steps back. It was a totally unconscious thing with him.”[16]

That same month, Travel & Camera ran a story on the sport of harness racing, with photos by Leonian. An introduction to the article claimed that Leonian was shaking up the field of sports photography: “For years, sports photography has been as predictable as Old Faithful", the editors wrote. "But things are changing, and Phil Leonian is in good part responsible."[22]

In 1972, the New York Times photography critic Gene Thornton called Leonian's photos of athletes and dancers “truly strange and haunting” in his review of an exhibition called Sports in Time/Space.[5] Thornton went on to elaborate:

In some of his non-strobe pictures he achieves a kind of cubist effect with several successive views of the same figure in motion. See particularly the bicycle racers. But the strangest and most interesting results occur when he holds his camera steady on a figure in motion. The background goes streaky and blurry and the moving legs of a horse are as many and filmy as the legs of a centipede.[5]

In 1986, former Sports Illustrated picture editor Tom Vanderschmidt offered even higher praise:

Phil Leonian brings the excitement of a sport into a still picture. He brings the movement, feeling and noise of it to the magazine page. There have been no pictures of gymnasts equal to what Phil did 15 years ago. His ice-skating pictures are special. For the first time, people could see what was going on. The positions, where the skater’s head and feet were: It was all laid out.[21]

Personal projects

Some of Leonian's first forays into motion photography were studies of people walking, including Walking Man (Man in a Hurry), a motion-blurred 1962 photo of a businessman captured mid-stride.[23]

Writing in the 1977 edition of U.S. Camera Annual, Leonian reflected on his early fascination with walking figures: "Walking is one of the basic human postures, the others being standing, sitting, and lying down. The last three are standard subjects throughout art history. Why not walking?"[24] He went on to connect his multi-image photos of people walking to some of the earliest artwork made by humans:

One day, leafing through a book, I came across reproductions of paintings of cave walls in France. An artist wanting to represent an animal in motion drew it with many legs. My ‘original’ image had been invented by a Neanderthal. My elation was profound…I had tapped a primal way of seeing.[24]

Leonian's experiments with motion blur also produced the Transcendentals, an early-1970s series of nudes which made it appear as though his subjects' spirits or souls were leaving their bodies.[25][26][27]

His experimentation wasn't limited to motion photography, though. He was one of many 1970s photographers who played around with Polaroids, resulting in a series of portraits called Waterworks. Using SX-70 film, he snapped pictures of his friends from the New York photography community, capturing a different body part (an arm, a leg, a face, etc.) with each instant photo. He then used a chemical solution to separate the emulsions from their backings, placed the emulsions on photo paper, and carefully arranged them to create full-figured portraits.[28] The New York Times called the resulting caricatures "fascinating", noting that "the curious effect of each is that of a person floating in his own body baggie filled with water."[29]

Writing

From 1957 through 1963, Leonian wrote a regular column for Camera 35, a vintage magazine devoted to 35mm photography. The column ("Comments on Color") drew upon his experiences developing photos in a color lab. He remained a contributing editor until 1977.[30]

Over the years, he continued to share his expertise by writing for various other photography publications. For example, he wrote a primer on how to use fish-eye lenses, which ran in U.S. Camera and Travel,[31] as well as an article about his experiments with underwater photography, which was published in Travel & Camera.[32]

Teaching

In the mid-’70s, Leonian taught photography classes at the newly formed International Center of Photography, where he was reportedly one of the more popular instructors.[1]

Inventions

Throughout his career, Leonian tinkered with cameras, tripods, and other photographic equipment. "If a photographer doesn’t invent things," he told Popular Photography, "he’s left with just a box and a lens."[18]

In 1985, former New York Times picture editor John Durniak mused that “Mr. Leonian has orchestrated tripod manipulation to the point of a fine art.”[33] A few years later, Leonian set out to design a compact lighting kit that would fit inside a 30-inch tripod bag. When he realized that his designs would require custom parts, he purchased $30,000 worth of metalworking machinery—all to manufacture a few small connectors.[18]

He then tried to make a business of selling his homemade equipment out of his studio, which he rebranded “Cougar Design” (a play on his surname). He freely shared his inventions with his photographer friends. "My only parameters", he said, "are that new items help me and photographers do better work, and that I have some fun making them."[18]

After the Copyright Act of 1976 overhauled U.S. copyright law, Leonian immersed himself in the subject, becoming a self-taught expert.[12] He joined the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and he was the chairman of the copyright committee of the American Society of Media Photographers.[34][11] He also served as a resource for the U.S. Copyright office and testified as an expert witness in congressional hearings.[12]

He further shared his expertise by giving lectures to various organizations, including the Copyright Society, New York Law School, and industry groups such as the Advertising Photographers of Milwaukee.[35]

Personal life

Phillip Leonian was married to Edith Leonian (née Rosenbaum), the daughter of Paul and Gabriella Rosenbaum of Chicago. Edith worked alongside Phil as his representative and business partner,[3] and for more than 30 years, the couple ran a photography studio in New York City.[2] Edith died in 2013; Phil died in 2016.[2]

A lengthy profile published in The Village Voice gave a mixed impression of Leonian's personality, portraying him as brilliant, but also egotistical: "His passions for truth and photography are each equal to his passion for himself.”[1] Published when Leonian was 49, the same article said that "he tends to be one of this planet’s more charming people, but he also knows how to be stubborn, abrasive, or bafflingly oblique with equal vigor." In self-reflection, Leonian seemed to echo this assessment of his character: "I’ve got a kind of mixture of kindness and meanness", he said. "I suspect that as an old man, I’ll end up being mean."[1]

When asked about his idols, Leonian named photojournalist W. Eugene Smith. "To me, Eugene Smith is still the greatest photographer in the whole world", he told an interviewer in 1972. "He’s the only hero who’s held up. Everybody else seems to get tired."[8]

Philanthropy

In 2010, Leonian and his wife co-founded the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, a charitable non-profit organization devoted to supporting documentary photography and promoting photography education.[2][36]

Exhibitions

  • 1972: Sports in Time/Space, Nikon House, New York[5]
  • 1977: Instants Extended: New Images on Polaroid Film, Neikrug Gallery, New York[37][38]
  • 1978: About Walking, Franklin Furnace, New York[39]
  • 1978: The Walking Show, Neikrug Gallery, New York[4][40]
  • 1978: The Male Nude: A Survey in Photography, Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery, New York[27]

Collections

Leonian's work is held in the following public collections:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Schreiber, Norman (May 10, 1976). "If It Moves, It's for Leonian" (PDF). The Village Voice. pp. 100–101.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Phillip Leonian obituary". Chicago Sun-Times. October 23, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Munro, Dick (August 2, 1971). "Letter from the publisher" (PDF). Sports Illustrated. p. 4.
  4. 1 2 McDarrah, Fred (June 12, 1978). "Voice Choices: A Selective Guide to Openings and Special Events". The Village Voice. p. 55.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Thornton, Gene (April 2, 1972). "What Is—What Was". The New York Times. p. 30.
  6. 1 2 "Muhammad Ali's SI Covers". Sports Illustrated. January 17, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  7. ↑ "Magic in Baltimore: Earl The Pearl Monroe". Sports Illustrated. November 4, 1968.
  8. 1 2 Schreiber, Norman (April 1972). "Great Moments: A Portfolio of Sporting Pictures by Phillip Leonian" (PDF). Camera 35. pp. 22–29.
  9. ↑ "Sports". PhillipLeonian.com. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  10. ↑ Sagan, Carl; et al. (Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Ann Druyan, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg, Linda Salzman Sagan) (1978). Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record (1st ed.). New York: Random House. p. 106. ISBN 0-394-41047-5.
  11. 1 2 Leonian, Edith; Leonian, Phillip (1979). "Copyright and Practice of the Trade". Art Directors Index to Photographers, No. 6 (PDF). RotoVision. ISBN 2-8846-002-6. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  12. 1 2 3 Fritz, Tom (Spring 1986). "Phillip Leonian to Help Unravel Copyright Confusion at April 29 APM Meeting" (PDF). APM Focus. Advertising Photographers of Milwaukee, Inc. p. 13.
  13. ↑ US 5139220, Leonian, Phillip M., "Support stand with sling boom suspension", issued 1992-08-18
  14. ↑ US 5098055, Leonian, Phillip M., "Self-adjustment hook and sling suspension for rolled sheet materials", issued 1992-03-24
  15. ↑ "Obituary: Leon Hatchig Leonian". Science. July 13, 1945. p. 25.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bowles, Jerry (Winter 1970). "Two Mountaineers in Manhattan" (PDF). West Virginia University Magazine. pp. 14–17.
  17. ↑ Desfor, Irving (November 9, 1972). "Name Dropping Following the Photo Fair" (PDF). The Harlan Daily Enterprise. Associated Press. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  18. 1 2 3 4 O'Connor, Thom (November 1988). "Pro View: Can A Well-Known Pro Photographer Become a Successful Equipment Designer and Maker?" (PDF). Popular Photography. pp. 72–74.
  19. ↑ "Philco Print Ad Uses Picture Off Color TV Set" (PDF). Advertising Age. July 5, 1966. p. 116.
  20. ↑ "The Problem Was... Up, Down, Doubleback" (PDF). A.D. Assistant. February 1968. pp. 33–34.
  21. 1 2 Schreiber, Norman (February–March 1986). "Capturing the Action: The subject of Phillip Leonian's photographs is movement itself" (PDF). Amtrak Express. pp. 6–11.
  22. ↑ Axthelm, Pete (May 1969). "Trot, Trot, Trot" (PDF). Travel & Camera. pp. 62–67.
  23. ↑ "Phillip Leonian: Walking Man (Man In A Hurry)". MFAH: The Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  24. 1 2 Leonian, Phillip (1977). "Walking" (PDF). U.S. Camera Annual 1977. pp. 41–47.
  25. ↑ "Phillip Leonian: Transcendental Man I". MFAH: Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  26. ↑ "Transcendentals". PhillipLeonian.com. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  27. 1 2 Senie, Harriet (July 15, 1978). "Male Nude: Two Special Viewpoints". New York Post.
  28. ↑ Hughes, Jim (January 1979). "The Instant & Beyond: In some photographers' hands, Polaroid's SX-70 system transcends time and place" (PDF). Popular Photography. pp. 102–119, 158.
  29. ↑ Sealfon, Peggy (July 27, 1980). "Some Notable Trends in Instant Photography". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2025.
  30. ↑ Leonian, Phillip (1957–1977). "Comments on Color". Camera 35. pp. Various issues.
  31. ↑ Leonian, Phillip (November 1967). "A Fish-Eye Primer" (PDF). U.S. Camera and Travel. pp. 54–57.
  32. ↑ Leonian, Phillip (December 1969). "The Silent Image" (PDF). Travel & Camera. pp. 90–95.
  33. ↑ Durniak, John (September 1, 1985). "Tripods Have Come A Long Way". The New York Times. p. 69.
  34. ↑ Confer, Holt (January 11, 1981). "Copyrights…Latest Law Gives More Protection to Shutterbugs". Reading Eagle. Reading, Pennsylvania. p. 68.
  35. ↑ Witte, Sally (June 1986). "Put It In Writing: Phil Leonian on Copyright" (PDF). Photo District News. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. p. 77.
  36. ↑ "Phillip Leonian: Photographer". PhillipLeonian.com.
  37. ↑ "Galleries: New Exhibitions". The Village Voice. March 14, 1977. p. 94.
  38. ↑ Barry, Ann, ed. (March 27, 1977). "Arts and Leisure Guide". The New York Times. p. 89.
  39. ↑ "Galleries: New Exhibitions". The Village Voice. June 5, 1978. p. 64.
  40. ↑ Thornton, Gene (June 4, 1978). "Photography View: Panoramas—How Modern?". The New York Times. p. 23.
  41. ↑ "Works | Phillip Leonian | People | The MFAH Collections". emuseum.mfah.org. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  42. ↑ "Phillip Leonian: The Cleveland Museum of Art". clevelandart.org.
  43. ↑ "Artist - Phillip Leonian". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
  44. ↑ "Collection | Milwaukee Art Museum". collection.mam.org. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  45. ↑ "Earth Shoes Walking A1". www.cartermuseum.org. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  46. ↑ "Poster, Danskins Are Not Just For Dancing, ca. 1980". Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  47. ↑ "Kulturelles Erbe Köln: Leonian » (2 Documents)". www.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
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