Born in Los Angeles in 1940, Leonard acquired her first camera at age seven but did not actively pursue photography until 1963, when she moved to West Oakland, California. There, candid snapshots of family, friends, and neighbors gradually transformed into a style that Leonard terms “intimate documentary”: images about the mundane, yet meaningful moments that comprise everyday life. Over the years, Leonard has used this format as a form of personal catharsis, exploring subjects such as miscarriage, life as a single parent, and her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Leonard is also recognized for her innovative photo-collages. By manually layering text and illustrations from magazines and newspapers over her own photographs, Leonard creates sharply feminist works of political critique. Her best-known photo-collage, Romanticism Is Ultimately Fatal (1972), became one of the few artworks by a woman to be included in H. W. Janson’s History of Art when it first appeared in the 1986 edition of that textbook.

Leonard’s art has been featured in exhibitions across the United States, including presentations at San Francisco’s de Young Museum and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art. In addition to her photographic practice, the artist is also a distinguished educator. She served on the art faculty at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for 40 years, and was appointed Diane M. Kirkpatrick and Griselda Pollock Distinguished University Professor in 2004.