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Photos to Inspire: Leland Bobbé
By Lynne Eodice | Photos to Inspire |
Apr 1, 2009
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  CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF LELAND'S IMAGES
All photos © Leland Bobbé
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| Honi Harlow, from the Neo-Burlesque Project |
Since his days as an assistant to Robert Farber during the late ‘70s, Leland Bobbé has become a successful commercial/editorial photographer in New York City. He has also done a number of personal projects, including his latest one—a photo essay on neo-burlesque performers—which will be the subject of a book in the near future.
“It was my first professional experience in the business,” says Bobbé of his work as an assistant to Robert Farber, beginning around 1978. “At that point in my life, I was coming out of the music industry as a rock & roll drummer during the CBGB nightclub days playing alongside and photographing such bands as Blondie, Television and The Ramones. After a while I decided I wanted to explore the possibilities of a career in photography.” He met Robert when they were both participating in a group show in a gallery on 57th St. in NYC. “The timing was good, because Robert had an assistant that was leaving, he offered me the job and I stepped right in,” he explains.
After a couple of years assisting Farber, Bobbé opened his own studio in New York. His clients include American Express, History Channel, Hyatt Hotels, and U.S. Cellular. Corbis and Getty Images market his stock images.
Leland has always been very productive and is currently doing an intriguing personal project photographing neo-burlesque performers. The project was spawned after he read an article last May in the Sunday edition of the New York Times about a neo-burlesque revival in New York City. He says that this revival came about in part as a reaction to Mayor Giuliani’s campaign to sanitize the nightlife in New York. “Burlesque had a lot of history I thought this new wave would be important to document.” He says that he’s seen a lot of pin-up photography, and some documentary, behind-the-scenes images of burlesque performers; but had seen little if any serious studio portraits
At the time of this writing, he’s photographed 30 of the biggest burlesque performers in New York. They’ve commented that the pictures are wonderful and unique and have never seen the subject matter handled like this. “I’m trying to do this in more of an interesting and provocative way.” Leland’s wife Robin, who works with him as a producer and casting director, is interviewing his photographic subjects about their lives and the business of burlesque.
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| Black Swan, from the Stormy Weather Project |
Some of his other personal projects include “T.V. Election,” images of television coverage of the last Presidential campaign. “American media is constantly bombarding us with images on television, especially with the advent of 24/7 news channels. I felt that telling the election story by photographing what I saw on TV was a compelling way of capturing history in the making. These images capture some of the more poignant, offbeat on-screen moments that normally fly by and disappear, often before the viewer has time to register them.”
Another project, “The Women of Fifth Avenue,” got its start after Bobbé visited the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and saw a series of black-and-white street photographs by Harry Callahan. “He had a lot of interesting photos of women’s faces on the street,” he says. With his roots in street photography, Bobbé went to Fifth Avenue between 50th & 59th streets, where he knew he would find a lot of very upscale women “that were dressed to the nines. I decided this would be a really interesting group to photograph.” He lost himself in the crowd with a long telephoto lens, and began photographing some of these women’s faces candidly and very tightly cropped as they walked along the street. This project lasted from spring through summer 2008 and resulted in some very compelling images.
“I do these projects for my own self-expression,” he says, adding that there is also the bonus of getting hired for future assignments based on personal work. “If you try to do what you think people are going to like commercially, it doesn’t necessarily work out,” he says. “You don’t want images that look like everybody else’s; you have to be original in order to stand out.” For example, at one time he had an image in his portfolio depicting a street musician standing against a red wall playing the guitar, which led to an assignment photographing mariachi musicians against a red wall for Tecate Beer.
As for the future, Bobbé wants to do more photography books and hopes that the burlesque project will pave the way for this. He advises photographers who are coming out of school that your own personal viewpoint is most important. “Don’t get to hung up on cameras and equipment . . . the camera is a great tool to capture your vision, but it is only a tool,” he concludes.
Leland Bobbe’s Camera Gear:
Nikon D700 and D300 DSLR camera bodies
Nikkor 35–70mm, 17–35mm, 80–200mm (all f/2.8), 35–105mm f/3.5
See more of his work at www.lelandbobbe.com
CLICK HERE TO SEE A GALLERY OF LELAND'S IMAGES
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Last Updated: Jul 10th, 2010 - 16:19:44
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