Leonard Nimoy

When Leonard Nimoy’s first photographic monograph—SHEKHINA—was published in 2002, it not only sold out of its first printing in less than a month, but it created such a stir that the Jewish Telegraphic Agencywrote, "Nimoy is igniting an artistic debate...over art and censorship that echoes the battles that swirled over Mapplethorpe, and other artists like Andres Serrano and Chris Ofili, who created controversial religious imagery." 

In MAXIMUM BEAUTY—his June 2005 exhibition at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery in New York City—Nimoy again stirred up debate; this time about our culture’s perception of beauty.  While SHEKHINA explored feminine power using models of the “classic” body type, MAXIMUM BEAUTY examined female power of an altogether different variety—joyful images of large bodied women.  In so doing, Nimoy’s extraordinary photographs revealed proud, self-confident ladies who were comfortable in their own skin and challenged society’s rigid definition of beauty.

Nimoy first experienced the magic of making photographic images as a teenager in the early 1940’s with his family’s bellows Kodak Autographic, which remained a cherished part of his collection. His darkroom was the family bathroom in their small Boston apartment. His subjects were family and friends. Nimoy’s first enlarger was a do-it-yourself number built around the same family Kodak, and he subsequently studied photography at UCLA under Robert Heineken in the early 1970’s.

Nimoy was exhibited in more than a dozen solo exhibitions around the world, including at the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Hebrew Union College in New York; and the Museum of Modern Art in Spyros, Greece. His numerous group shows included Art on the Seventh Floor in Washington, DC (1998), Photo Impact Nude LA in Los Angeles (2001 & 2002), and 100 Artists See God, which toured various museums around the United States.

Nimoy’s images can be seen in such prestigious photographic collections as The Jewish Museum in New York, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Per L’Artem in Rome, and the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  They have also been featured in many national publications, from American Photo and Black & White to Time Magazine.