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Leonelli (Elisa) Photographs and Essays Collection
H.Mss.1102
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Table of contents
Title: Elisa Leonelli Photographs and Essays
Dates: 1973-2017
Collection number: H.Mss.1102
Creator:
Leonelli, Elisa
Extent:
10 Linear Feet
(10 record boxes)
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library. Claremont, CA 91711
Abstract: The collection contains 35mm photographic travel slides and international fashion magazine clippings by photo-journalist Elisa
Leonelli. The slides cover a wide range of subjects and geographic locations, including extensive coverage of the Los Angeles
1984 Olympics. The fashion magazines are from a variety of countries, predominantly Italy, and include celebrity photographs
and interviews.
Physical Location: Please consult repository.
Language of Material:
English
Language of Material: Languages represented in the collection: English,
German,
Japanese,
Italian,
Russian, and
Spanish.
Collection open for research.
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to Special Collections.
[Identification of item], Elisa Leonelli Collection, (H.Mss.1102). Special Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Elisa Leonelli, 2018.
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Processed in 2018 by graduate students Alan Schooling and Myles Mikulic at Claremont Graduate University, in the Special Collections
branch of the Honnold Mudd Library with assistance from Lisa Crane. Materials have been stored in acid free folders and placed
in record boxes. The slides are in their original slide pages and include any supplemental materials. Folders have been organized
alphabetically by subject, based on the original slide page titles by Leonelli. Magazine clippings have been arranged alphabetically
by publication title, then chronologically.
Elisa Leonelli was born in Modena, Italy. In 1970 she graduated from the University of Bologna with a BA in Film Aesthetics
and became a film critic for the Pesaro Film Festival. During that time she developed an interest in photography and soon
after moved to the United States to work on the production of avant-garde television (The Chicken Little Comedy Show, 1972;
Beneath the War of the Worlds, 1974). In Los Angeles she began working as a photojournalist; her first assignment was to photograph
the 100 best places in Los Angeles for Coast in 1974. She went on to photograph for Time, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times,
Herald Examiner, Los Angeles Magazine, Westways, and others. Between 1981 and 1986 Leonelli specialized in travel photography,
visiting such countries as China, Mexico, Japan, Peru, Brazil, India, and Nepal. In 1984 she covered the Los Angeles Olympics
and had her work published in the book Olimpiadi 1984.
In 1987 Leonelli became the Los Angeles correspondent for the Italian film magazine Ciak, and served as the film editor of
Venice Magazine from 1990 to 1999. In 1997 she received an MA in Critical Studies from the University of Southern California's
School of Cinematic Arts. In 2007 she wrote the book Robert Redford and the American West. Leonelli has written feature articles
about film actors and directors for numerous Italian publications, including Epoca, Elle, Marie Claire, Gioia, Donna Moderna,
Glamour, Myself, and the Spanish film magazine Cinemanía. She has been the Los Angeles correspondent for the Italian monthly
Best Movie since 2005, editor of the Reynier Village Blog since 2009, and a regular contributor to Cultural Weekly since 2015.
This collection has been arranged into the following series:
Series 1: Slides and supplemental materials, 1973-1999
Series 2: Magazine clippings, 1987-2017
Materials have been organized alphabetically by subject or periodical title.
Leonelli maintains a website featuring her photographs and interviews: http://elisaleonelli.com/
The collection contains materials relating to the career of photojournalist Elisa Leonelli. The majority were created for
general interest periodicals, particularly fashion and travel magazines. Items include photographic slides, photographs, photograph
negatives, press releases, model release forms, and magazine clippings.
Series 1 contains 35mm slides of various subjects and accompanying supplemental materials such as press releases, release
forms, and photographic prints. Series 2 contains magazine clippings from various international fashion magazines for which
Leonelli had photographed and conducted actor and director interviews.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library’s online public access catalog.
Actors and actresses
Disneyland (Calif.)
Fashion photography
Interviews
Models (Persons)
Olympic Games (23rd : 1984 : Los Angeles, Calif.)
Travel photography
Periodicals
Photographs
Press releases
Slides (Photography)