Leon J. Staab was born in Hays, Kansas in 1947. He earned a BA degree in German with teaching minors in Russian and Journalism from Fort Hays State university in 1971. He left teaching in 1977 and embarked on a full time career in photography. He still operates Pioneer Photography, a full service portrait studio in Hays, Kansas.

In addition to his studio work, he has continued to devote a portion of his time working on fine art photographic projects. Leon's personal work for many years has involved the craft of black and white photography. He strives to make high quality prints from large format negatives. Each negative is hand printed on double weight, fiber base paper and processed to archival standards. The finished prints are toned for permanence, using several types of toners.

His work falls into two main areas: People & Places. The people photographs are generally figure studies. The places are usually segments of, and close up views of stone buildings. His work has been accepted in numerous juried shows and has won many top awards. He has also exhibited his photographs in one man shows.