Symphony in Steel: Walt Disney Concert Hall Goes Up

When Frank Gehry makes a new building—that’s architectural history! And when Gary Leonard gets out his cameras, Los Angeles history is recorded forever! So, is it any wonder that Gary Leonard is the only photographer to have documented Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles from the first shovel of dirt that was lifted on groundbreaking day right through to completion? And now, his pictures are the definitive Walt Disney Concert Hall-in-the-making book: Symphony in Steel.

Symphony in Steel is Gary Leonard’s photo study of the building that has added a 21st Century style to the skyline of L.A. His lenses captured the people of Los Angeles as they stared into its stainless-steel skin. He shot the building from the inside out, from its steel girders to its upholstered seats. He got the then-Los Angeles Philharmonic Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and architect Frank Gehry as they contemplated the future, and acoustic engineer Yasuhisa Toyota as he created the perfect labyrinth of sound. Gary Leonard was the only photographer whose eyes were on site every step of the way—from Day One.

Now for all the Angelenos who will want it, for all the tourists who must take it home, all the L.A. historians and architectural devotees who’ll demand it: here’s the only book featuring color images of the building on the covers and Gary Leonard's signature black-and-white images inside. Featuring the words of the people who will live with this architectural symphony in steel—the people of Los Angeles, from Esa-Pekka Salonen and Frank Gehry to John J. Doe. Symphony in Steel—the people’s book. With photos by the people’s photographer, the inimitable Gary Leonard.

Gary Leonard is renowned as L.A.’s unofficial photographer. For more than four decades, he has been venturing forth into the city, armed with cameras and his eye for the beautiful, ironic, and iconic. A native Angeleno, his work is featured in several books and his photo-column appears on the must-read website L.A. Observed. His photographs also appear in journals around the world.