Dr. Leonard Hellerman

Autobiography provided by Leonard Hellerman, DDS, 2025.

I [Leonard Hellerman] practiced dentistry in Windsor, Connecticut for forty years. Well before I became a dentist, and following retirement, I continued to be fascinated by photography as an art form.

Recently I recalled an accomplishment of many years ago about which I had completely forgotten. It was my earning, in high school, a Gold Key award from the Scholastic Art Contest, an organization started in 1923 to encourage creativity in teenagers. Also at Weaver High School, in Hartford, I was the president of the camera club, photographer for the newspaper, and I took almost every photograph used in my yearbook.

As a sixteen year old junior in high school I ventured to downtown Hartford on V-J Day, August 14, 1945, with my Ihagee, 9x12 centimeter camera and a Kalart flash gun attached and captured some iconic images of the jubilant crowds. I took them on the corner of Main and Asylum Streets. One of them is very similar to Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous image of a sailor kissing a dental assistant in Times Square. These images are in the permanent collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut, the Hartford History Center at the Hartford Public Library, and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in Hartford.

Upon my retirement from the dentistry practice, my wife and I began spending three to four months each winter in Florida. There I began an extremely fortunate association with the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, an organization dedicated to exhibiting photography in its beautiful gallery and for holding lectures and workshops throughout each year. I was soon appointed as the events photographer. I was free to enter any of the many classrooms where nationally known American photographers lectured. I learned a great deal about the art of photography, about computer use, and about Photoshop. Some of the names of the lecturers that come to mind are: John Sexton, for whom I acted as a teacher's assistant, Arnold Newman, Douglas Kirkland, Olivia Parker, Robert Farber, Joyce Tenneson, Ralph Gibson, Dirk Halstead, Elliot Erwitt, Michael Kenna, and a great many more. Each year, at the end of the weeklong Fotofusion, the Centre's annual festival of photography, I prepared a slide show featuring most of the many volunteers who assisted the presenters.

A very satisfying experience photographically was my association with SummerWind, Windsor's musical outdoor performing arts center. Many well-known vocalists and musicians performed weekly during the warm weather. I was fortunate to be the principal photographer recording events. I photographed Judy Collins, Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Lew Rawls, Roberta Flack, The Preservation Hall New Orleans jazz band, and many others. When I retired from dentistry I continued, more intently, my study of photographic art. I enrolled in semester-long classes in digital photography, two successive years, at the University of Hartford. Also, I enrolled in many classes and workshops given throughout the country be well-known individuals and organizations.

I have exhibited my photography in a great many places and I have earned many awards. A few of the venues are the following: The Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, of which I was a three-year president, the West Hartford Art League, The Essex Art Association, The New Britain Museum of American Art, that has three of my photographs in its permanent collection, and the Salmagundi Club in New York, where I received the Anthony Vincent Almeida award in a photography exhibition. Very satisfying are the three Best in Show awards that I received in exhibitions that were primarily of paintings. Two were from the Essex Art Association and one from the Windsor Art Center, the juror of which was Patricia Hickson, curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth Atheneum. A special award from the Essex Art Association was a small solo exhibition in its side gallery. In 2017, I received some special recognition at the PhotoPlace Gallery, dedicated to photography only, in Middlebury, Vermont. My photograph, "Shadows of Dawn," was juried by the internationally known Sam Abell. It was the only time the PhotoPlace Gallery held an exhibition jointly sponsored with another photography organization. The exhibition was titled, "Composed." It was held in conjunction with the Texas Photographic Society. The director of the Texas Photographic Society, who accompanied Sam Abell, chose my photograph for the cover of the catalogue of the exhibition. That catalogue may be purchased from the Texas Photographic Society.

My photography can be seen in many places. The town of Windsor has used, and continues to use, over seventy-five cover photographs for its seasonal publication, "There's a lot to do in Windsor." The Windsor police station has about thirty large photographs in its hallways. A large apartment complex in the center of Windsor has seventy-one large photographs in its hallways. Several branches of the Windsor Federal Savings Bank have their walls decorated with them. For many years Windsor's retiring teachers were given one of my photographs. The Environmental Protection Agency of the State of Connecticut has used many of my photographs for its calendar. I was the primary provider of photographs for a yearly table-top book published by the Hartford Business Journal.

One of my favorite subjects, and one that is defining in the culture of Connecticut, is tobacco growing, and in particular, shade tobacco growing. I have taken more photographs in shade tobacco fields than anyone. Shade tobacco is the variety, used mainly for high grade cigars, that is grown under white cloth tents. Its growing, in recent years, has almost disappeared, as the cost of labor has become prohibitive compared to the cost in Central American countries. Broad leaf tobacco, grown in the open, and used mainly for cigarettes and lesser grade cigars, is still being grown in Connecticut. Years ago I was given permission, by two of the largest tobacco growers in Windsor, to photograph their workers, their fields, and sheds. The best of these photographs now exist in a great many private collections, museums, and businesses, as mentioned above. Also, a book published by the History Press by Brianna Dunlap, "Connecticut Valley Tobacco," has my name on its cover for my contribution of many of its photographs.

Local Windsor civic organizations and the Town Council of Windsor have honored me for my photography contributions. In 2006, The Rotary Club of Windsor and Windsor Locks awarded me a Community Service Award for "Capturing the Life of Our Community on Film and Sharing His Art." In 2001, Windsor's First Town Downtown gave me a Special Recognition certificate for sharing my photography. In 2001, the Windsor Town Council and the mayor presented me a Resolution plaque for "numerous contributions of stunning art to the Town of Windsor and other community organizations." In 2024, the Windsor mayor presented me with a Proclamation for "All his contributions to the Windsor community through his photography and other artistic offerings." In addition, the Windsor Chamber of Commerce awarded my wife and me a Citizens of the Year Award.