Leslie Gill American, 1908-1958 Leslie Gill, one of the most influential American still-life photographers, was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Originally interested in painting, he studied with Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 1929. Three years later he took a job in New York City as art director for House Beautiful, where he began to use photographs as an aid in his work, often taking them himself. These photographic experiments led him to leave the magazine in 1935 to open his own studio. Among Gill's clients was Harper's Bazaar, one of the many fashion magazines that had begun using photographic illustrations in the 1920s. He soon became known for his sharply focused, beautifully composed still-life and fashion images that appeared in issue after issue of Bazaar. His compelling and elegant work was greatly admired by many younger photographers, including Irving Penn. Except for a brief period during World War II when he interrupted his career to work for the U.S. Office of War Information, Gill continued to photograph for Bazaar and other New York magazines until his death. M.M.