Photographer Spotlight – Leonard Nimoy
Live Long and Prosper As A Photographer, Film Director Actor, Poet, Singer and Songwriter: Leonard Nimoy at 80
Being a lifelong photographer while at the same time being a lifelong photographer gives me a 40 year perspective of others careers to follow. The first to come to mind is Ansel Adams primarily because I met him and was a fan of his work from such a young age. At that same time I was also a Trekkie. Still am. Best of both worlds? For years I’ve been a fan of Leonard Nimoy not only as one of my favorite actors (Trekkie here), but additionally from one of his other multiple art forms he is so passionate about and engaged in, photography.
As you can see from the subtitle, Leonard Nimoy recently turned 80 years young. Upon reading that headline on one of the news services in the past month I decided to go out and view more of his photographic work which I’ve seen over the years. His earlier work was done in the same medium many of us started out in, black and white film. Mix in some color photography and many years experience, you have an accomplished artist, in multiple art forms.
Publicity Biography
Leonard Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1931. After his feature film debut in 1951, he pursued his acting career on the big screen as well as on stage and television. However, it was Nimoy’s portrayal of the character Mr. Spock in the science fiction series “Star Trek” that earned him iconic status as well as three Emmy nominations. Aside from his numerous credits as an actor and director, Nimoy is also a successful recording artist and author, having published two autobiographies as well as several volumes of poetry, two of which also feature his photographs. He has long been interested in photography, and studied at UCLA with Robert Heineken in the early 1970s. He recently finished an appointment as artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome. Nimoy is represented by Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York and Louis Stern Fine Art in Los Angeles. Donald Kuspit (Essay) is an art critic and a professor of art history and philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. An author of numerous articles, exhibition reviews, and catalog essays, Kuspit has written more than twenty books, including Redeeming Art: Critical Reveries (Allworth), and Idiosyncratic Identities: Artists At The End Of The Avant-Garde (Cambridge University Press.)
Nimoy is also represented by The R. Michelson Galleries which hosts his photography website.
My first view of Leonard Nimoy as a photographer was from his controversial book published in 2002 titled Shekhina. The reason for the controversy was simply Nimoy’s nude interpretations. Personally, the images were tasteful and extremely well done. Different than any other nude or semi-nude work I’ve seen. The theme was beauty, spirituality. Not sex or pornography in which he was blamed in certain circles. A dilemma that many artist struggles through, pornography vs art in the eyes of those that really don’t know what they are even talking about or visualizing, and that is a kind statement. Naysayers don’t know what the words art or visualization even mean however they do know how to preach to others what is tasteful and what isn’t.
Book Description:
Shekhina presents the first-ever monograph of Leonard Nimoy, photographer. This exhaustive and eerily beautiful photographic study of the female form reveals Nimoy’s intrigue with scriptural mythology and ancient spirituality. According to the Kabbalah, evil came into the world once God became separate from the “Shekhina,” the deity’s feminine counterpart. The Shekhina came to be understood as a crucial element of both divine and human spirit, symbolizing the creativity and wisdom without which no human being is complete. Renowned actor and director Leonard Nimoy has turned to photography as a means of inquiry into the mysteries of the Shekhina. In his introductory text, Nimoy elaborates on the influence Shekhina has had on the work: “I have imagined her as ubiquitous, watchful and often in motion…This work is my quest for insight, the exploration of my own spirituality, and, as such, has been a deeply moving and expanding process.” Shekhina Limited Edition with a print, signed and numbered by the photographer and limited to 75 copies, is available upon request (ISBN: 1-884167-21-X).
Recent Work
Nimoy’s work in photography is a life long pursuit of art. Since publishing Shekhina, Nimoy has continued his photographic work, shows and books. In 2007, Nimoy published The Full Body Project in which Nimoy captures images of full-bodied women, some of whom are involved in what is known as the “fat acceptance” movement. “The average American woman,” Nimoy writes, “weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothes. There is a huge industry built up around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. Pills, diets, surgery, workout programs. . . . The message is ‘You don’t look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.’”
80 years young, still kicking out films and his other art forms. Thank you Leonard, we can’t wait to see and hear what else you have in store for us for the next 80 years. Please, keep creating images!
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