In a series of hand-painted photograms, Lebe has arranged flowers, leaves, seedlings and other specimens into a constructed landscape of sorts; floating in the middle of some vast celestial sky, or growing from the earth against a background of soft pink clouds.

Photograms are a cameraless photograph made by placing objects directly on or just above light sensitive material and then exposing the light sensitive material to light. The shadows of the objects create the white areas. The black areas are where the light struck the light sensitive material enough to fully expose it. By using objects that let only some light reach the light sensitive material grays are created. What results is, essentially, a large negative. What was light is dark and what was in shadow is light. 

Lebe made these photograms on silver photographic paper. In some cases he contact printed the original negative photograms to reverse their tones. The images with a predominately black ground are the negatives and the ones with predominately light ground are the positives. Lebe then hand painted these prints with water color.

Landscape 30, 1986	Bird #1, 1981	Landscape #21, 1985
Garden Series #25, 1981	Landscape No.4, 1989	Garden#13, 1979
Plant Specimen Series #15, 1978	Floating Landscape #3, 1986	Plant Specimen Series #14, 1978
Landscape #9, 1984	Landscape No.10, 1989	Landscape No.11, 1989

All photographs are silver prints, painted with watercolor. To read more about the history behind hand-colored photography click here

Self-Portrait 11:98, 1981	Bird Boy, 1983	Bird of Paradise, 1981
Charlie 2, 1982	DeTerred, 1982	Renato's Arc, 1983
Dusk, Renato, 1983	Dragon Boy, Renato, 1983	B and Upside Down Boy, 1986
Shadow Play, 1987	Socks, Renato, 1983	Stars and Stripes, 1983
Wayne at the Window, 1980	The Luminous Cord, Renato, 1983	Unzipped, 1981 Sold
The Empty Plate, 1982

I started making these pictures in 2004 on May Hill, in the gardens, meadow and woodlands that surround our house and along the trail where I often take my daily walk. These images come from the world just beyond my front door, from the land I know best.

These photographs are interpretations and transformations arrived at after much time working on them in the computer. They are not so much inventions, as they maintain a strong connection and trueness to the original subject. Yet it is always the two-dimensional image rather than the original subject that is the more important aspect of the picture for me, though both aspects always matter and reverberate together.
 
It is the part of the picture I add that makes the picture important to me. Well, perhaps not so much add as reveal. Patterns, relationships, shapes and lines I see hidden in the original scene are the main intent of my efforts—the things I want to share with the viewer. These hidden forms and relationships speak to us as part of a visual language that can often touch deeper, emotional regions of the mind, regions not given to words.

Mostly—though not always—I have to wait a long time before I can see enough beyond the experience I had when shooting the picture to where I can see just the photograph itself. To know if those forms and relationships I was seeing through the viewfinder are really in the photograph and sustain my interest. It’s only then that I can craft an image that resonates with my vision. In this way there are often layers of understanding created for the viewer to discover. And an image arrived at that can sustain interest over time and not give up all of its secrets at a single glance.

It is easy for me to find fascinating subjects here on May Hill and to make beautiful photographs of them, but very hard to make images from those subjects that are about more than just the subjects.  It is a frustration that there are many wonderful and loved subjects that I’ve never been able to craft into an image that satisfies—an image where the subject doesn’t overwhelm my contribution. Often I have to be content with just experiencing.

David Lebe, on May Hill, January 2010
 

On May Hill, Actaea alba Dance #2, 2007	On May Hill, Allium christophii, 2006	On May Hill, Butterfly Weed In Seed, 2004
On May Hill, Baptisia Seed Pods, 2006	On May Hill, Angelicas over Phudd Hill, 2007	On May Hill, Clematis, 2005
On May Hill, Green Mushroom, 2006	On May Hill, Iris Bud, 2006	On May Hill, Nectaroscordum Bursting, 2006
On May Hill, Red Fringed Poppy #2, 2006	On May Hill, Spanish Flag Vine, 2005	On May Hill, Summer, 2006
On May Hill, Two Irises, 2009	On May Hill, Yellow Capped Mushroom, 2006	On May Hill: Poppies, 2006