Leslie E Harris

Leslie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 9th, 1952, to Lee Harris and Ackey Dorfman Harris. They moved to Miami when she was three. She grew up in Coral Gables on Maynada street, attending South Miami elementary, Gables Junior, and Senior high school.
It seemed she was born a gifted artist, and from the time she could first hold pen or paintbrush she began to practice in the visual arts medium. It was apparent that she had an eye for composition at a very young age. Always the entrepreneur and trying new mediums she began to make her own leather purses with hand-tooled designs and sold them to local boutiques while in high school.
She attended the University of Central Florida and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. During school she worked with many mediums including oil paint, sculpture, pottery, and photography. After her school hours, she would spend late nights in the ceramics workshop making fine vases, crockery, and sculptures. She would then attend weekend art fairs to sell her wares, helping to pay her way through school. During that time, she began to accumulate awards for her pottery and sculptures at local art shows. It was during this time of experimentation with many mediums that she decided that she was drawn to the capturing of moments on film. After finishing her undergraduate, she attended one year of postgraduate studies, but was eager to apply her newly adopted trade skills.
After a brief stint in Los Angeles, she moved to New York in 1979 and began her commercial photography business in a Manhattan studio where in a small amount of time she began to accrue large advertising accounts. In 1985 she returned to Miami and opened her studio here. She most often shot film in 8X10 format for the high resolution necessary for billboards, magazine covers and other large advertisement media.
Some of Leslie’s local, National, and international accounts included ATT-BellSouth, Crown Royal, Florida Lottery, Entenmann’s Baked Goods, Bacardi, Knorr, and Kraft Foods.
In 2009, Leslie closed her studio and continued to work part-time from her home.
Leslie’s kind, and gentle spirit, caused her to identify with and become a champion for unwanted, unloved, abandoned, or injured animals of any kind. She would stop during her busy schedule and spare no expense to rescue an animal in need.
Leslie died suddenly in her home in her beloved Redland fruit-tree grove on Saturday morning, September 9th. She is survived by her soulmate and husband John Green, her brother Jon Harris, and a sister Barbara Harris.
The loss of this kind, gentle, nurturing, and generous soul leaves an enormous void in our world. She will be sorely missed by all that knew, loved, and were fortunate to work with her or have her touch their lives respectively. Our only hope is that her kindness, nurturing spirit, and charity lives on in all of us that she touched.
In lieu of flowers, Leslie’s wishes were to raise awareness of the silent cries of animals everywhere, and for people to donate funds to animal-rights, or animal rescue groups such as Bestfriends.org, Alleycat.org, SPCA, or the like.

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