Miles Davis Portrait
date: label: date made
content: 2005
label: Associated Date
content: August - September 2005
name: label: depicted
content: Davis, Miles
label: photographer
content: Leonard, Herman
notes: label: Description
content: Weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this framed 1948 image of renowned musician and composer Miles Davis was found floating on eight feet of water that filled the photo studio of Herman Leonard in the Lakeview District of New Orleans. Thousands of other photographs of jazz greats were lost in Herman's studio, but a few had been framed and bubble-wrapped, awaiting shipment to galleries around the world. The bubble wrap served as a life preserver, keeping the frames from sinking but allowing enough water to seep in to dissolve emulsion around the edges of these portraits, creating a new spectrum of hurricane-generated photographic effects.
label: Description
content: For over sixty years, Herman Leonard has been striving to capture the sight and soul of jazz performers with his stark black-and-white photography. His base in New Orleans exposed him to a rich mix of musical traditions, settings, and jazz artists. After Katrina swept through and swept away his work, he relocated to California, but carried with him the film negatives for his life's work that had been stored elsewhere, on dry land.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Louisiana, New Orleans
label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana
label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana, New Orleans
topic: label: related event
content: Hurricane Katrina
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Popular Entertainment
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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content: Sports & Leisure
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content: Photography
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Herman Leonard
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.3055.01
label: catalog number
content: 2006.3055.01
label: nonaccession number
content: 2006.3055
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Portrait