The Sony Gallery for Photography

In Memorium: Van-Leo

Van-Leo has passed away. No other photographic work has been so identified with the Sony Gallery (save for Lehnert and Landrock) as Van-Leo. In all, the Gallery staged three exhibitions of his work. The first, "Glamour as Genre: The Portrait Photography of Van-Leo," was opened in November 1996 and included what have since become Van-Leo classics--his portrait of Nelly Mazloum (which graced the catalogue of the first show), Doria Shafik, Teddy Lane, Farid El Attrach and, best known of all, the now-iconic picture of Taha Hussein.

Nigel Ryan's article from Al-Ahram Weekly, which inspired Adham Center and Sony Gallery director S. Abdalah Schleifer to organize this first show (which could be designated as the beginning, in Cairo, of the Van-Leo revival, was edited by Nigel and re-published as the exhibition catalogue essay "Van-Leo: The Truth of Glamour."

The catalogue covers and posters of the two subsequent exhibitions, "Van-Leo: A Moveable Feast" (October 1998) and "Van-Leo: The Chronology," were taken from that first historic show—a portrait of the young Omar Sharif, and the half-shadowed signature photo of Taha Hussein. Both of these two later shows were organized in close cooperation with AUC's Rare Books and Special Collections Library, which by 1998 had acquired Van-Leo's entire collection upon the great portraiturist's retirement thanks to the efforts of the Cairo-based international photographer Barry Iverson (a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sony Gallery). In both cases, Van-Leo's work was exhibited simultaneously at the Sony Gallery and the Rare Books and Special Collections Library.

Much of Van-Leo's work is available on this website at the Sony Virtual Gallery. Articles about Van-Leo, including the three catalogue essays by Nigel Ryan, Barry Iverson, and Veronica Rodriquez (who curated the last show), are also maintained as an ongoing archive for the Virtual Gallery exhibition.

Schleifer says he treasures the two prints that Van-Leo personally gave him (the Adham Center collection of some 80 prints, which Van-Leo donated to the Sony Gallery prior to his retirement, have been added to the Rare Books collection). "One is a portrait of myself and I would be too embarrassed to hang it up myself; fortunately my wife insisted on putting it, in a stand-up frame, on a night table in our bedroom, so I was doubly touched. The other picture, which also hangs in our house in Maadi, is an extraordinary picture, particularly for an artist who will be remembered for his glamour portraits, of a photograph of the pyramids as seen from the Mena House terrace. But of course Van-Leo couldn't have picked a more glamorous foreground as setting."

The Sony Gallery/Adham Center, in cooperation with Rare Books Collection Curator Negar Azimi, is preparing a special section on the web of a Van-Leo eulogy.

Abdallah Schleifer