Intimate Vermont

Vermont is one of the most photographed of the fifty states. Because most books of Vermont photographs have focused almost exclusively on the state's stunning natural environment, they convey a landscape of great beauty in which, apart from the reliable changing of the seasons, not much happens. Photographs of the people of Vermont - and their animals, farms, schools, and churches - offer a much more complex story.
Jon Gilbert Fox's photographs capture private moments of personal introspection, humor and sadness, the hardships and glories of work, leisure, and daily life. The volume begins with images of people at work and taking a moment of respite from their daily labors: housepainters, sheepshearers, waitresses, farmers, and young field hands. Scenes of rickety porches, dilapidated post offices, and tired barns characteristic of Vermont's older communities complement soaring church steeples and a house at the rainbow's end. Animals, central to Vermont's economy as well as to its domestic pleasures, are featured prominently in these pages. The image of a county fair horse-pull showing an animal's straining muscles is juxtaposed against the relaxed backs and flanks of horse grazing. There are cats at rest and on guard, and even a hapless pig who seems to know his days are numbered. Fox's photographs bring us an unusual glimpse of a Vermont not easily accessible to outsiders.

JON GILBERT FOX has been taking photographs professionally for over 30 years. He has freelanced for festivals, corporate reports and advertisements, national park publications, book jackets, and innumerable portraits. His work has appeared in shows throughout the United States, and has been published in various books and such diverse periodicals as U.S. News & World Report, the New York Times, House and Garden, Playboy, Vogue, Scholastic Magazine, Vermont Life, Scientific American, Focus, The Washington Post, and Conde Nast Traveler.