Memo Center with Mickey Mouse 1975 - 1976

Joanne Leonard made this gelatin silver print, "Memo Center with Mickey Mouse," sometime in her career. It's a slice of life, raw and real, captured in shades of gray. The photo shows a door, but it’s more than just a door – it’s a personal landscape. There's a calendar pinned up, scribbled with daily life, a Mickey Mouse night-light, a fire extinguisher! All these objects speak to the everyday hustle, the dance between chaos and control. My eye keeps going back to the calendar, with its handwritten notes. It's like a map of someone’s mind, each mark a trace of a moment lived. In some ways, it reminds me of the still life paintings of Giorgio Morandi. Both capture the magic in the mundane, elevating simple objects into something profound. It's not about perfection, it’s about the messy, beautiful truth of being alive.