John Lehet

I’ve been making archival, carefully crafted fine art photographs in Vermont and New Hampshire for over 30 years. Through this period I’ve worked with a view camera and 4 x 5 inch film, medium format, in my own darkroom, and now I’m finding that with pigment-ink prints on fine art paper I’m getting (after long days) prints that surpass what I was able to pull after long sessions in the darkroom.

Although good technique and equipment may be important in conveying a strong statement, technique is in the service of the message, a means and not an end. The point is: can an image ring us like a bell, create a resonance with the world? The visual appearance of a finished piece is more like a trick to create that impact. The technology is in the service of the emotional experience, the connection with a bigger view of the world.

My images may often be of ordinary landscapes and objects. Though I have traveled as far as Nepal and made good photographs there, most of my work is done a very short distance from my house. Though ordinary, when seen deeply and well the ordinary hopefully shimmers and transforms. We see through it to something deeper and feel something.

Dartmouth College BA

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, December 2015
Ledyard Gallery, Hanover NH, December 2014