Leonard Cohen Portrait

A cou­ple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet the Poet/Singer/Songwriter Leonard Cohen in Sague­nay Que­bec. I have always been an enor­mous fan and rarely does a week go by when I don’t lis­ten to one of his truly great songs. Although we only spent a few pre­cious min­utes with him, he was gra­cious enough to allow us to take a few shots. This shot was my favourite of the few shots we took.

It was a hot sunny cloud­less day and the sun was still fairly high which meant I had to be on the look­out for shad­ows in the face. I there­fore set my flash to minus 2 which would fill in the poten­tial shad­ows. This shot was orig­i­nally processed in colour and I really like how it turned out (maybe I’ll post the colour ver­sion some­time). How­ever there is some­thing time­less and mys­te­ri­ous about Mr. Cohen’s music and I knew when I took the image that I’d likely process it in black and white. Also, his suit and hat were just scream­ing to be pho­tographed in black and white.

I’d like to thank Leonard Cohen (and his UNBELIEVABLE ensem­ble of musi­cians) for the fan­tas­tic con­cert where he received at least 15 stand­ing ova­tions, and for allow­ing me the plea­sure to take a few shots. My only regret is that my wife (who is equally an enor­mous fan) wasn’t there to meet him with me. She was rest­ing at the hotel since she was tired from the 5 hour drive from Montreal.

Comments

  1. admin says:

    Please con­tact me by email (use cor­rect email formatting)for this or any other request. photography.ca ( a T ) gmail ( d o t)com
    Thx — Marko

  2. Abraham says:

    Can we put a thumb­nail of your pic­ture on another com­mer­cial site cit­ing the source and link to this page?

  3. Barry Marcus says:

    This is Lenny! Wait­ing for a mir­a­cle to come. And the photo cap­tures a com­plex expres­sion. Deter­mined, focused with pen­e­trat­ing eyes lookin’ right at you. I don’t seen any answers about about the pos­si­bil­ity of pur­chas­ing prints. I for one woud be grate­ful for the opportunity

    • admin says:

      Thanks for that com­pli­ment. Not sell­ing copies of the image at this point, but i have your info if I ever do put it up for sale.

  4. sandi says:

    can I use this in my print publication?

  5. Brad says:

    Wow great shot. The eyes are amaz­ing and he’s got a lit­tle Mona Lisa smile going on. I just fin­ished my base­ment and am look­ing for photo’s for it. I would really like to have a copy of this photo. Please let me know if you are sell­ing prints or the dig­i­tal file.

    Thanks!

  6. Joanne says:

    this is truly an amaz­ing por­trait of Leonard Cohen. I am also a BIG fan of Leonard, saw him last year in Hal­i­fax and one of the best per­for­mances ever. Such a hum­ble man, his songs are still fresh.

  7. PaulaLynn says:

    Amaz­ing por­trait. You have cap­tured so much in his eyes. Amazing.

  8. Susan says:

    Marko — won­der­ful! warm, and poetic!

  9. Keith says:

    So very nice.

  10. Louise says:

    A truly beau­ti­ful pic­ture! I think I saw you, I was walk­ing by as you were tak­ing the pic­tures. If by any chance you have any video of that fan­tas­tic evening, PLEASE, post them on YouTube. I would love to see them.

  11. Aimee says:

    I have been look­ing to pur­chase a nice photo of Leonard. This is a ter­rific shot. Would you be inter­ested in sell­ing a copy?

  12. Benny says:

    I also love this shot and I find it extremely expres­sive. Very well done and Thumbs up.

  13. Jen. S says:

    Wow this is an excel­lent por­trait!!! Very well done I must say and although i want to see the color ver­sion this ver­sion is just great!! :)

  14. Marie says:

    Wow. I have seen pho­tos like this before of Leonard, but no one has man­aged to cap­ture the kind­ness and gen­tle­ness in his eyes. This is prob­a­bly the best photo I have ever seen of him (and I have seen them all). Amaz­ing. Thank you so very much.

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