Ballet: Photographs of the New York City Ballet

After four years of collaboration with choreographer Peter Martins and the New York City Ballet, Swiss portrait photographer Henry Leutwyler was granted unprecedented backstage access to the Company during the winter of 2012. The resulting book, Ballet, reflects 30 years of his passion for the art form, realized in 30 days of photographing.

Leutwyler inhabited the shadows of the stage and became "invisible," recording images of the dancers using nothing more than his 35mm Leica. He was able to explore the performers' immediate space, affording a more abstract portrait of their frenzied existence in an art form predicated on perfection. This clothbound masterpiece is a homage to the gritty world behind the curtain. With impresario Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine co-created the New York City Ballet in 1948. What followed is arguably one the most revolutionary periods in ballet history as he redefined the art form, introducing abstract works performed with a signature speed, musicality and precision. Under the leadership of Peter Martins, these are the hallmarks of the Company to this day.

About Henry Leutwyler

Henry Leutwyler was born in Switzerland in 1961. He lived and worked in Paris for a decade before finding his way to New York City in 1995, where he established his reputation as a portrait photographer. Steidl published Leutwyler’s first book Neverland Lost: A Portrait of Michael Jackson, in 2010. The images from Neverland Lost and Ballet have been exhibited in solo shows in Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Moscow, Madrid and Zurich.