Need To Know: Photographer Nina Leen

Daniel Cooney Fine Art is presenting the first solo exhibition of Nina Leen's vintage photography, titled Lenslady, that captures a surreal aesthetic during WWII and after. She was one of the first female contract photographers for LIFE magazine, and she died in 1995 at the approximate age of 80. This distinctive exhibit features Leen's photographs of teenagers doing (take that hipsters!) and her series that ran under the title City Dogs, that featured actors, artists, and musicians with their canine companions.

Leen was coined "Lenslady" in a 1944 LA Times article and was best known as a photographer of animals, teenagers, and American style. One of her most famous photographic essays documents "Tommy Tucker," a trained squirrel. Tucker was owned by Zaideh Bullis, who dressed him in a variety of homemade outfits (including a Red Cross nurse and a Dutch-girl dress).

The exhibit of Leen's work continues through May 16, 2015, at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City.