Photographer uses Ag Reserve as her canvas

Comus woman hopes her photos will bring more appreciation for county farming

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2006

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by Titus Ledbetter III

Staff Writer

Click here to enlarge this photo

Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette

Lee Langstaff photographs the creatures and environment of the county Agricultural Reserve.

Lee Langstaff lives in a white cottage set on the backdrop of rolling hills of corn stubble in the Agricultural Reserve in Comus.

Crisp, orange autumn leaves cover her back yard, which is peppered with sugar maple, Chinese chestnut and blue spruce trees.

Each day she walks to Shepherd’s Hey Farm to care for the flock of sheep and chickens she keeps there. She always carries her camera with her so she can capture the classic images of the Agricultural Reserve.

Langstaff’s photography captures a variety of details of the Agricultural Reserve, including honeybees collecting nectar, a winter landscape, birds, a box turtle and even produce.

‘‘A photo captures a visual,” Langstaff said. ‘‘If it creates a scene of something more it resonates with people in a way that is more than visual. It could be emotional or remind them of something that feels good.”

Langstaff was one of three artists to display her work in an exhibit at the BlackRock Center of the Arts entitled ‘‘Rustic Roads: A Journey Through the Montgomery County Ag Reserve,” which was held Oct. 3 through Nov. 3. The exhibit featured images of the 93,000-acre reserve. Agricultural advocates considered the show a huge success.

Andrea Arnold, campaign manager for the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, a group dedicated to preserving the Agricultural Reserve, said the exhibit helped the surrounding community learn about the reserve and appreciate the landscape.

Her organization partnered with BlackRock, in Germantown, to hold the exhibit and display Langstaff’s work.

‘‘She is a very talented photographer and captures the beauty of the Ag Reserve,” Arnold said. ‘‘She is working with a great canvas.”

Langstaff, 50, has taken nature and wildlife photos in Alaska, Kenya, Nova Scotia and South Africa. She is self-taught and has never taken a photography class, although she has read a few books on the subject.

The BlackRock exhibit was Langstaff’s first. She credits the other two artists in the exhibit — Tina Brown and Dalis Davidson of Barnesville — for helping her have a positive experience at the exhibit.

‘‘It was extremely successful,” said Lee Stern, who overseas the gallery at BlackRock. ‘‘It was the biggest-grossing exhibit we have ever had at BlackRock. The amount of traffic at the exhibit was phenomenal.”

Langstaff sold eight pieces of her artwork at the exhibit. Three of her framed photos sold for $280 and eight matted photos sold for between $125 and $150. She does not know when she will participate in another exhibit.

Her day job as a neutral mediator for environmental and resources issues led to her direct involvement in many environmental issues for government bodies and nonprofit organizations.

The preservation of the Agricultural Reserve is extremely important, she said.

‘‘I’d like to see more organic farming and you can’t do that without land,” Langstaff said. ‘‘It is important to enable farm families to be able to survive.

She also believes growing vegetables locally and selling beef from nearby farms are important because people can get the food they want without relying on commercially produced products.

Many visitors to the exhibit walked up to Langstaff and told her they did not know the Agricultural Reserve was so close by. She hopes people will visit the reserve to appreciate it for themselves.