Leonard Nimoy, photographer

Over at art.blogging.la, Caryn is chortling over gallery owner Matthew Marks' New York snobbishness, exposed in comments about LA and Leonard Nimoy in New York Magazine. While Caryn rattled off Nimoy's various financial contributions to the arts, what both she and Marks missed is that in addition to being "like, a really elegant older man", as Marks put it, Nimoy is also a fine art photographer. A couple of years ago, my wife and I were stopping in to see an Abelardo Morell show at Bonni Benrubi Gallery which was in an Upper East Side brownstone at the time. There in the back room, the gallery attendant informed us, was Leonard Nimoy, signing copies of his new book of photography. He was chatting away with the two or three people who happened back to meet him. We felt bad that so few people had some to see him, being so famous, but I'm sure any real publicity would have brought in the drooling fanboy crowd.

UPDATE: Tyler Green has posted more about Nimoy's arts philanthropy and photography.