Born in Haiti where he acquired his love for the ocean, Leslie Jean-Bart has been living in New York City since he arrived in the US in 1967. After earning a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University, Jean-Bart embarked on a photography career that resulted in the creation of images that have garnered awards and recognition.

Earlier days found Jean-Bart on staff at Sotheby's and Christie's where he was surrounded daily by the world's greatest art. Freelance assignments took him all over the world, as he shot for clients in Japan, Brazil, Iceland, Cyprus and Portugal. His commitment to his craft and his defined vision, resulted in a variety of commercial projects, and several published award winning books. A special collage project of Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown for Verve Music Group was cited for excellence.

Jean-Bart began exhibiting in 2001, when a number of his collages were part of the exhibit "Committed To The Image: Contemporary Black Photographers" at The Brooklyn Museum. From 2001-2003 he took part in a number of group exhibits at Monique Goldstrom Gallery in SoHo, NYC. He is currently working on an extended project titled:

"Reality and Imagination".
http://www.realityimagination.com

Awards

                           Marion Vannett Ridgway Honor Book Award for “Strong to the Hoop”

                          “Strong to the Hoop” was listed in Between the By-Road and the Main Road
                            list of recommended global children’s literature that use collage.
                          "Strong to the Hoop" was chosen as an American Library Association Notable Book.
                          "Strong to the Hoop" was named one of the Choice Books by the Cooperative 
                            Children's Book Center.
                          "Strong to the Hoop" was picked as A Notable Social Studies Trade Book For Young
                            People by the Children's Book Council.
                          "Strong to the Hoop" was chosen as a Best Children's Book of the Year by the Children's
                            Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education, New York.
                          "Strong to the Hoop" was Selected as a Notable Book for a Global Society by the 
                            International Reading Association

Selected Group Exhibitions

                           Committed to The Image, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

                           Nicola Wood Retrospective, (A Collage of Mine) Petersen

                           Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, California

                           Group Show, Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York, NY

                           Group Show, Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Bibliography

                           Gonzalez, David, “Mirrors in the Sand” Metropolitan Section Sunday New York

                           Times, July 6, 2014

                           Grahame, Julie, “Reality and Imagination: Photo Collage in Coney

                           Island, Huffpost Art & Culture, July 22, 2014 

Strong to the Hoop, (Lee & Low Books)
Strong to the Hoop Classroom Guide, (Lee & Low Books)
Strong to the Hoop Performance Reading, (Lee & Low Books)
Military High Life, (University Press of The South)
Blue Guitar, (Chronicle Books)

Books contributed to

Raising the Bar,  (Zondervan /Harper Collins)
Washington, DC, (Abrams)
Russian Imperial Style, (Prentice Hall)
Dark Witness, (Ballantine Books) 

Leslie Jean-Bart has been photographing and giving visual shape to verbal ideas for varied clients 

ranging from companies to magazines to book publishers for more than 30 years.

Partial List of Clients

                           IBM Corporation

                           The New York Times

                           BMW of North America

                           American Can

                           Columbia University

                           Newsweek Magazine

                           New York Magazine

                           Publishers Weekly

                           Simon & Schuster 

                           United Way of New York

                           Verve Music Group

                           New York Transit Authority

                           Time Warner

                           Harper Collins Publishing

                           Chronicle Books

                           FUSE180.org

                           GARP