John LeBaron photo exhibit opens at Sonoma State University

Most people are lucky to have one great career, but the late John LeBaron had two: first as chief photographer for The Press Democrat for 20 years, followed by more than 30 years teaching photography at Santa Rosa Junior College. He died in 2014 at 85.

But photography itself was a consistent lifelong pursuit for LeBaron, starting in his teen-age years, said his widow, longtime Press Democrat columnist Gaye LeBaron.

“That’s 70 years of photography,” she said. “The landscapes are of Sonoma County, particularly western Sonoma County, because he grew up in Valley Ford.”

“John LeBaron: A Lifetime of Photography,” an exhibit of more than 50 black-white photographs by the photographer, is on display through May 27 at the 2North Gallery in the Sonoma State University Library at the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center.

“His favorite thing to say was always that he liked pictures that asked more questions than they answered,” Gaye LeBaron said. “He worked with shapes and forms. You see angles. The show has been grouped so that there are portraits of everybody from Richard Nixon to local characters, landscapes, including the Bodega Church, and his angles and forms.”

In accordance with his written wishes, the LeBaron family is in the process of donating “thousands” of negatives and many prints shot by John LeBaron to SSU’s permanent archives, which are best-equipped to preserve the work.

“The real excitement for us is that John’s photos really embody Sonoma County - the people, the places and the things,” said Lynn Prime, librarian for special collections and archives at Sonoma State University. “We’re really over the moon about the exhibit and collection.”

John LeBaron went to work for the The Press Democrat in 1948 and worked there until 1968, when he moved over to Santa Rosa Junior College. While working at the newspaper, he met reporter Gaye Notley, and they married in 1958.

For more information about the exhibit, call 664-2397 or visit library.sonoma.edu.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @danarts.