Nadel, Leonard 1916-1990.

The American photojournalist Leonard Nadel (1916-1990) recieved a bachelor's degree from City College of New York, trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center, and received a master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University before moving to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design, during wihich time he began to document public housing in Los Angeles, focusing on Pueblo del Rio and Aliso Village. On the strength of this work Nadel was hired in 1949 by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to make a photographic record of living conditions in both the slums and the new housing projects that were built in Los Angeles during and immediately after World War II. He was employed by HACLA until 1953, after which he worked as a freelance photographer, producing documentary work for various agencies and magazines such as National geographic, Look, Forbes, Life, and Paris Match. For over two decades he was Business week's primary west coast photographer.

From the description of Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998 (bulk 1947-1957) (Getty Research Institute). WorldCat record id: 84944340

Biographical/Historical Note

The American photojournalist Leonard Nadel was born in Harlem, New York in 1916 to Austrian-Hungarian parents and grew up in the Bronx tenements. After graduating from City College of New York, Nadel trained at the Army Signal Corps Photographic Center and served as a lab technician and combat photographer during World War II in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippine Islands. Upon leaving the army, he returned to New York and received a master's degree in education from Teachers College, Columbia University. He taught briefly before moving to Los Angeles to study photography at the Art Center College of Design, during which time he began photographing public housing sites.

In 1947 and 1948, Nadel documented the Pueblo del Rio project, built in 1940 for African-American defense industry workers. Located at 52nd Street and Long Beach Avenue, the mid-century modernist project was designed by the Southeast Housing Architects, which included Richard Neutra, Gordon Kaufman, Adrian Wilson, Paul R. Williams, and the firm of Wurdeman & Becket. Williams, Los Angeles's first successful African-American architect, known as the "architect to the stars" for the many private residences he designed for the Hollywood elite, was the chief architect on the project. Nadel showed his material to Frank Wilkinson of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA), who suggested he document Aliso Village, another of the agency's housing projects.

Nadel photographed Aliso Village during 1948 and 1949. Designed in 1942 by the Housing Group Architects led by Ralph Flewelling and including Lloyd Wright, the garden city-style housing project was one of the first integrated public housing projects in the U.S. It was built in the Boyle Heights area known as The Flats, which in the 1930s was one of the most impoverished areas of Los Angeles. Jacob Riis had visited the area in the 1910s, declaring it to be worse than any New York slum. Aliso Village was demolished in 1999 and replaced by a new housing project, Pueblo del Sol.

In 1949 Nadel was hired by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) to make a photographic record of living conditions in both the slums and the new housing projects that were built in Los Angeles during and immediately after World War II. He was employed by HACLA until 1953, when Frank Wilkinson, the manager who had hired him, was blacklisted by the Committee on Un-American Activities and forced to resign from the agency. Nadel left HACLA under protest. From then through the 1980s, Nadel worked as a freelance photographer, producing documentary work for various agencies and magazines such as National Geographic, Look, Forbes, Life, and Paris Match . For over two decades he was Business Week's primary west coast photographer. Of particular note is his work done in 1956 documenting the Bracero program for the Ford Foundation's Fund for the Republic. Founded in 1942, the Bracero Program recruited Mexican nationals to cover the shortage of agricultural labor due to World War II. It became the largest and most significant U.S. sponsored guest worker program, functioning until 1964.

Nadel married Brazilian-born Evelyn De Wolfe, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times in 1961. Over the next eighteen years they collaborated on numerous freelance projects for domestic and international publications ranging from documenting the life of a Japanese geisha to living with a stone age tribe in New Guinea. Nadel also continued to document the city of Los Angeles, particularly focusing on street mural art during the 1960s and 1970s. Leonard Nadel died in 1990.

From the guide to the Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998 (bulk 1947-1957), (The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688 (310) 440-7390)