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24 thoughts on “Guest Book”
Enjoyed the website – and have always enjoyed Lynn’s work, great presentation!
Dear Joan, Ann, Leigh, Paul, and Chris,
It is very fitting to remember Lynn on this beautiful fall weekend, which reminds me of the first time that I met Lynn. He took Chris, Paul, and me on an excursion to a remote lane near Pottstown, Illinois, where we scrambled up and down a hillside, climbing over exposed rock outcroppings and around trees. Lynn followed us with his Nikon, occasionally composing and squeezing off a frame or two. We boys had a lot of fun exploring, and I’m sure Lynn enjoyed seeing our enthusiasm for such rustic outdoor habitat.
That was my introduction to Lynn’s cheerful and generous personality. Soon I was lucky to get to know your whole family, and I have enjoyed our friendship ever since. It is obvious that he was a keen influence on all of you, and that you treasure his influence and memory! Over time, Lynn became a generous mentor to me, as I became a photographer and gained experience in the field.
He was always modest and low key about it, as if helping me was just a matter of fact. His endorsements helped me in the business environment, while his example of high standards in his own photographic craft subtly rubbed off on me and remain in my value system to this day.
Here’s to my friend, Lynn Swigart, who lived a wonderful life, excelling in a great many ways, and improving our lives in the process!
Tom and i treasured our friendship with Lynn. He delighted us with his wit, both verbally and pictorially. His eye for the unusual in the usual made us stop, think and greatly admire his point of view, provocative and beautiful. One of my favorite photos – how to chose from so may? I is the one taken of bottles in Streater, Illinois. Amazing. His talent along with himself, is greatly missed
Lynn, I have come to admire your work, only now, after you are gone. For that, I am sorry to not have known about your photographs sooner but so glad that they exist beyond your time here. Gloucester has a special place in my heart, too. Over the past two summers, I have sailed there, learning of the history and people of Cape Ann. And, like you, I am intrigued and taken by its people, its history, and the interplay of ocean, sky and wind with rocky coastline. By your photographs, will it and you be remembered. Thank you and may you rest in peace. My prayers for your family.
What an extraordinary body of work! It is beautifully presented on this site, as well. I work with Leigh, who called my attention to your site. As a photographer myself, I’m struck by your evocation of specific places, and even specific times, in photos of sometimes nearly abstract details. I’m inspired to look at my own work with fresh eyes! Thank you, Lynn.
Thank you so much for this! Leigh happened to mention the site to me, and I have spent a lovely hour just now going through the images, many times doubling back to look at a particular photograph for a second or third time. One of those was the one of the two women at a window in Gloucester in the 1970s. Somehow that image captures the feel of that decade utterly. So many of the others are imprinted in my memory now and will stay there. That white ship in the harbor… a tree trunk and pine needles in the snow…an endless avenue in a park in Copenhagen…
Thanks for making the work available to general public like this.
Dear Lynn,
It took me far too long to really look at your wonderful website (kudos to Matt!) because every time I began to, I realized I needed more time with it. I have loved your work from the moment I first saw it, and the more I have seen, the more I do so. I want the world to look like your images of it, the light, the sky, the sea, our beloved Gloucester, and everything else you have graced with your vision. The emotion and grace your black and white images convey bring sweetness to our grey times, and your few color images are like stunning gems that stun with their beauty. Thank you for your work, and thank goodness the archive will have a safe home! With much, much admiration, Susan.
As a photography student at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, it has been an honor and a great pleasure for me to be able to use Lynn’s Arca Swiss 4×5 system that was part of a donation to the school. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn and experiment with large format photography on such fine equipment that came imbued with a legacy of excellence. Thank you!
Thank you! These are truly inspiring photographs. Just last weekend I taught a class of high school kids how to shoot, develop and print black and white photography. The excitement of watching the image appear never gets old. My appreciation for the beauty of your art work, is deep. :) Thank you.
Lynn: As a native New Englander, I am drawn to the Gloucester images, but I knew you and Joan way before Gloucester. Joan will remember our drive from Northampton to Peoria in 1980; until that time, the longest I had spent in the car was to drive 90 miles from Groton, MA. to West Harwich, MA. I remember Leigh showing me the dark room in Peoria and being fascinated by the imaging process. I also met Jon Blumb on that trip, who did a fantastic job putting this site together. I’m so thankful that your family has been intertwined not just with me but with Rob and the girls. We have such fond memories of visiting you, going to Good Harbor, and then Joan producing a great meal for the girls. Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource.
Lynn, as Joan pointed out the other night, you see the world through a unique photographic eye. Never would I have thought a tank (ref. Tanks & Sky and Four Grain Bins) would appeal to me aesthetically. I so admire and appreciate the whole of your work. Your friend Kurt Peterson’s comments so eloquently define what makes your art so appealing, so I will leave it at that. You know how much I love black and white photography; your work is the epitome of that for me. With appreciation. Judy
I absolutely love black and white photography. The graphic structure, the tonal canvas, the smooth transitions, the gritty detail of the photographic medium. You are a grand master of all these attributes. Plus your photos tell a story, they capture a moment in time, with a blend of mid-west sensibility and east coast sophistication. And you have Gloucester in your back pocket, you own it, it is worked into the fiber of your artistic soul. You should be so proud of the photographic legacy that you have defined with this collection of photographs. I’m proud to know you and to have shared a long friendship with you in all its various forgings.
Leigh, I love this one – “Woman in Fog, Good Harbor Beach”! Good Harbor Beach is for me one of my best souvenirs in Gloucester, loving memory , one of the best beautiful place around ocean, thank you for sharing Fine Art photography from your father, thank you, thank you and Kisses for all the family!
A beautiful body of work. I particularly love the abstractions created in the skyward views of the arch.
Dear Lynn,
We are so happy for you and the family that this extraordinary web site has blossomed!
Your photography and friendship are continual inspiration to us. Thank you!!
Sara S. and Jay McLauchlan
Thank you for sharing your inspiring body of work. How wonderful that you have passed you creative spirit to your children as well.
Ann
Dear Lynn,
Your art….and you….have given me so much joy for so many years. Ever since I found you asleep on the floor in a den room, in front of a fireplace, at a too large party in Peoria, I knew that here was a man I wanted to get to know.
This website is so well done, and gives us such a good view of the master photographer’s extraordinary work. To have , in effect, been introduced to the art of photography by such an artist is a rare privilege.
Thank you!
So grateful to be able to see these photos and say I have the pleasure of knowing your eyes and mind Lynn. Finding myself returning to Mexico the most for faces that seem to capture hundreds of years of cultures and tradition in a moments glimpse into eyes and features that transcend age or youth.
WoW! The Gateway Arch totally blows me away. It’s really profound. Looks like the entrance to infinity. I drive by it a lot when I travel to visit my grandchildren in St. Louis but never imagined what it would look like from that angle. Leave it to Lynn to see things from a unique perspective.
Dearest Lynn– what a wonderful collection of your photos. It’s fabulous to have them available like this and so wonderfully organized. I love it! And will definitely share it with Peggy. Much love to you and Joan! Happy Spring!
Betsy
Hello, Lynn. I know your daughter Leigh. I’m so pleased to be able to view your wonderful photos. My husband and I downsized and moved up to Gloucester last year. We’re in west Gloucester. Your photos are helping us to get oriented and to discover places we don’t know about. I’m looking forward to being able to see your work at the Cape Ann Museum and will visit Trident Gallery.
I recently read the book “Dogtown” and discovered Charles Olson’s work. Haven’t attempted to take it on yet but your work has inspired me to get going on it.
Jan and I enjoyed viewing your web site and lovely photographs. We enjoy going back east, often to Cape Cod, so your photos of Gloucester (not far north) were especially pleasurable to see. We had hoped to live in New England, too, but grandchildren drew us to Wichita, Kansas, an entirely different environment.
A little more update: Jan continues to paint and is represented by a Wichita gallery. I write freelance for a UK magazine and an aviation newsletter. I also write an occasional essay and, of course, continue taking photographs. In fact, for inspiration, I plan to refer to your web site, because viewing your images is inspiring, as well as pleasurable.
Dear Lynn, Congratulations on having your web site go live! It has been fun to see so many of your prints, many that I remember, and some that I wasn’t familiar with before. I found your steady productivity and high technical standards to be inspiring. No wonder I have always respected your commitment to our photographic medium. Thank you again, for helping and encouraging me over the years! Sincerely, Jon
I am very pleased to share this web site of beautiful photographs with the public, and to have the privilege of making the first comment in this guest book.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Lynn and his family on the site, and to work with photographer Jon Blumb, who photographed almost every print shown on this site and worked with Lynn to adjust the images to Lynn’s satisfaction.
Enjoyed the website – and have always enjoyed Lynn’s work, great presentation!
Dear Joan, Ann, Leigh, Paul, and Chris,
It is very fitting to remember Lynn on this beautiful fall weekend, which reminds me of the first time that I met Lynn. He took Chris, Paul, and me on an excursion to a remote lane near Pottstown, Illinois, where we scrambled up and down a hillside, climbing over exposed rock outcroppings and around trees. Lynn followed us with his Nikon, occasionally composing and squeezing off a frame or two. We boys had a lot of fun exploring, and I’m sure Lynn enjoyed seeing our enthusiasm for such rustic outdoor habitat.
That was my introduction to Lynn’s cheerful and generous personality. Soon I was lucky to get to know your whole family, and I have enjoyed our friendship ever since. It is obvious that he was a keen influence on all of you, and that you treasure his influence and memory! Over time, Lynn became a generous mentor to me, as I became a photographer and gained experience in the field.
He was always modest and low key about it, as if helping me was just a matter of fact. His endorsements helped me in the business environment, while his example of high standards in his own photographic craft subtly rubbed off on me and remain in my value system to this day.
Here’s to my friend, Lynn Swigart, who lived a wonderful life, excelling in a great many ways, and improving our lives in the process!
Tom and i treasured our friendship with Lynn. He delighted us with his wit, both verbally and pictorially. His eye for the unusual in the usual made us stop, think and greatly admire his point of view, provocative and beautiful. One of my favorite photos – how to chose from so may? I is the one taken of bottles in Streater, Illinois. Amazing. His talent along with himself, is greatly missed
Lynn, I have come to admire your work, only now, after you are gone. For that, I am sorry to not have known about your photographs sooner but so glad that they exist beyond your time here. Gloucester has a special place in my heart, too. Over the past two summers, I have sailed there, learning of the history and people of Cape Ann. And, like you, I am intrigued and taken by its people, its history, and the interplay of ocean, sky and wind with rocky coastline. By your photographs, will it and you be remembered. Thank you and may you rest in peace. My prayers for your family.
What an extraordinary body of work! It is beautifully presented on this site, as well. I work with Leigh, who called my attention to your site. As a photographer myself, I’m struck by your evocation of specific places, and even specific times, in photos of sometimes nearly abstract details. I’m inspired to look at my own work with fresh eyes! Thank you, Lynn.
Thank you so much for this! Leigh happened to mention the site to me, and I have spent a lovely hour just now going through the images, many times doubling back to look at a particular photograph for a second or third time. One of those was the one of the two women at a window in Gloucester in the 1970s. Somehow that image captures the feel of that decade utterly. So many of the others are imprinted in my memory now and will stay there. That white ship in the harbor… a tree trunk and pine needles in the snow…an endless avenue in a park in Copenhagen…
Thanks for making the work available to general public like this.
Dear Lynn,
It took me far too long to really look at your wonderful website (kudos to Matt!) because every time I began to, I realized I needed more time with it. I have loved your work from the moment I first saw it, and the more I have seen, the more I do so. I want the world to look like your images of it, the light, the sky, the sea, our beloved Gloucester, and everything else you have graced with your vision. The emotion and grace your black and white images convey bring sweetness to our grey times, and your few color images are like stunning gems that stun with their beauty. Thank you for your work, and thank goodness the archive will have a safe home! With much, much admiration, Susan.
As a photography student at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, it has been an honor and a great pleasure for me to be able to use Lynn’s Arca Swiss 4×5 system that was part of a donation to the school. I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn and experiment with large format photography on such fine equipment that came imbued with a legacy of excellence. Thank you!
Thank you! These are truly inspiring photographs. Just last weekend I taught a class of high school kids how to shoot, develop and print black and white photography. The excitement of watching the image appear never gets old. My appreciation for the beauty of your art work, is deep. :) Thank you.
Lynn: As a native New Englander, I am drawn to the Gloucester images, but I knew you and Joan way before Gloucester. Joan will remember our drive from Northampton to Peoria in 1980; until that time, the longest I had spent in the car was to drive 90 miles from Groton, MA. to West Harwich, MA. I remember Leigh showing me the dark room in Peoria and being fascinated by the imaging process. I also met Jon Blumb on that trip, who did a fantastic job putting this site together. I’m so thankful that your family has been intertwined not just with me but with Rob and the girls. We have such fond memories of visiting you, going to Good Harbor, and then Joan producing a great meal for the girls. Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource.
Lynn, as Joan pointed out the other night, you see the world through a unique photographic eye. Never would I have thought a tank (ref. Tanks & Sky and Four Grain Bins) would appeal to me aesthetically. I so admire and appreciate the whole of your work. Your friend Kurt Peterson’s comments so eloquently define what makes your art so appealing, so I will leave it at that. You know how much I love black and white photography; your work is the epitome of that for me. With appreciation. Judy
I absolutely love black and white photography. The graphic structure, the tonal canvas, the smooth transitions, the gritty detail of the photographic medium. You are a grand master of all these attributes. Plus your photos tell a story, they capture a moment in time, with a blend of mid-west sensibility and east coast sophistication. And you have Gloucester in your back pocket, you own it, it is worked into the fiber of your artistic soul. You should be so proud of the photographic legacy that you have defined with this collection of photographs. I’m proud to know you and to have shared a long friendship with you in all its various forgings.
Leigh, I love this one – “Woman in Fog, Good Harbor Beach”! Good Harbor Beach is for me one of my best souvenirs in Gloucester, loving memory , one of the best beautiful place around ocean, thank you for sharing Fine Art photography from your father, thank you, thank you and Kisses for all the family!
A beautiful body of work. I particularly love the abstractions created in the skyward views of the arch.
Dear Lynn,
We are so happy for you and the family that this extraordinary web site has blossomed!
Your photography and friendship are continual inspiration to us. Thank you!!
Sara S. and Jay McLauchlan
Thank you for sharing your inspiring body of work. How wonderful that you have passed you creative spirit to your children as well.
Ann
Dear Lynn,
Your art….and you….have given me so much joy for so many years. Ever since I found you asleep on the floor in a den room, in front of a fireplace, at a too large party in Peoria, I knew that here was a man I wanted to get to know.
This website is so well done, and gives us such a good view of the master photographer’s extraordinary work. To have , in effect, been introduced to the art of photography by such an artist is a rare privilege.
Thank you!
So grateful to be able to see these photos and say I have the pleasure of knowing your eyes and mind Lynn. Finding myself returning to Mexico the most for faces that seem to capture hundreds of years of cultures and tradition in a moments glimpse into eyes and features that transcend age or youth.
WoW! The Gateway Arch totally blows me away. It’s really profound. Looks like the entrance to infinity. I drive by it a lot when I travel to visit my grandchildren in St. Louis but never imagined what it would look like from that angle. Leave it to Lynn to see things from a unique perspective.
Dearest Lynn– what a wonderful collection of your photos. It’s fabulous to have them available like this and so wonderfully organized. I love it! And will definitely share it with Peggy. Much love to you and Joan! Happy Spring!
Betsy
Hello, Lynn. I know your daughter Leigh. I’m so pleased to be able to view your wonderful photos. My husband and I downsized and moved up to Gloucester last year. We’re in west Gloucester. Your photos are helping us to get oriented and to discover places we don’t know about. I’m looking forward to being able to see your work at the Cape Ann Museum and will visit Trident Gallery.
I recently read the book “Dogtown” and discovered Charles Olson’s work. Haven’t attempted to take it on yet but your work has inspired me to get going on it.
Jan and I enjoyed viewing your web site and lovely photographs. We enjoy going back east, often to Cape Cod, so your photos of Gloucester (not far north) were especially pleasurable to see. We had hoped to live in New England, too, but grandchildren drew us to Wichita, Kansas, an entirely different environment.
A little more update: Jan continues to paint and is represented by a Wichita gallery. I write freelance for a UK magazine and an aviation newsletter. I also write an occasional essay and, of course, continue taking photographs. In fact, for inspiration, I plan to refer to your web site, because viewing your images is inspiring, as well as pleasurable.
Dear Lynn, Congratulations on having your web site go live! It has been fun to see so many of your prints, many that I remember, and some that I wasn’t familiar with before. I found your steady productivity and high technical standards to be inspiring. No wonder I have always respected your commitment to our photographic medium. Thank you again, for helping and encouraging me over the years! Sincerely, Jon
I am very pleased to share this web site of beautiful photographs with the public, and to have the privilege of making the first comment in this guest book.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Lynn and his family on the site, and to work with photographer Jon Blumb, who photographed almost every print shown on this site and worked with Lynn to adjust the images to Lynn’s satisfaction.