When I posted this photo of Leonard Cohen yesterday as Just Another Great Leonard Cohen Photo, I did so half-apologetically because it lacks the qualities that usually lead to a shot of the Canadian singer-songwriter being chosen for publication.
The photo, for example, isn’t rare; it has been used as an illustration for several articles about Leonard Cohen. It doesn’t show Cohen performing in a recent concert – or in performance mode at all. Heck, he’s not even wearing his trademark fedora. In fact, it is not, at least on first glance, a striking image.
But, every time I’ve seen this photo, it has revealed more and has conveyed more dignity and more significance.
So I posted it, albeit ambivalently.
The response was impressive. This has become one of the most popular images posted on DrHGuy or Heck Of A Guy in the past five years.
The only problem was that, at the time of posting, the photographer could not be identified. In all the examples of the photo I had found, it was credited, when any attribution was listed, only to Bloomfield News.
Happily, this morning I ran across a New York Times article using the photo, which named the photographer as Andrew Harrer, a staff photographer for Bloomberg News whose portfolio content typically runs to political luminaries such as President Obama.
I hope Mr Harrer saves a place in his photo showcase for “Just Another Great Leonard Cohen Photo.”
