On Beauty

The book On Beauty is a collaboration between the fine art photographer Lenny Foster and the poet J. M. White bringing together fifty fine art photographs and fifty poems that embody the ideal of beauty.
About the Author: In 1991 I purchased a camera at a second hand store and began shooting pictures. It became a passionate pastime and little did I know that my life would change in a drastic, beautiful and profound way. My photographic career began in 1993 after a trip to the Southwest. During that two week vacation I photographed the wide expanse of sky, the unique architecture and the varied landscape of the American Southwest and subsequently sold my first images. This inspired me to hang up my coat and tie after fifteen years in my nine-to-five job and move from the Washington, D.C. area to Taos, New Mexico where I was determined to pursue a new way of life. The journey as a self- taught photgrapher and gallery owner has not been easy, but it has been fruitful, fulfilling, life-enhancing, and ultimately, personally and aesthetically, successful. My goal has been to find, enhance and illustrate the beauty that is in front of our eyes in everyday life. From the beginning my career has been as a fine art photographer creating art and not being involved in other typical commercial photography. My work is propelled by the search for beauty and deeper truth conveyed in the medium of photography.

For twenty years, starting in 1998, I owned and operated The Living Light Photography Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. In 1999, I received an Honorable Mention at the 25th annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2000 I won my first Best of Photography at the 26th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2004 I won Best of Photography at the 30th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2007 I had the distinction of being selected as a Taos Living Master by The Taos Fall Arts Festival Committee. In 2009 my work received a 3rd place People's Choice Award at the Millicent Roger's Museum Miniature Show and Sale in Taos. In 2010 I won Best of Show at the 36th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. The Living Light Gallery was voted the Taos News People's Choice Best Gallery in Taos 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. I also won the People's Choice, Best Of Show, 41st annual Taos Invites Taos, Fall Arts Festival, 2015. I have had images purchased for the Juried New Mexico's Art in Public Places Program in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and two images in 2016. In 2014 I was chosen poster artist for Music From Angel Fire 31st season Angel Fire, New Mexico. My work has been on view in prominent institutions in New Mexico such as: The Harwood Museum, Millicent Roger's Museum, The Taos Art Museum, the Albuquerque Museum and the Hubbard Museum of the American West. My work is also part of the permanent collections of The Harwood Museum, The Millicent Rogers Museum, The Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky and The Ross Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University. My work is also in the collection of Oklahoma University's College of Allied Health, The Snite Museum at The University of Notre Dame and most recently at The Lincolnville Museum and Cultural center in Saint Augustine, Florida. In addition, I'm honored to have my work added to many private collections worldwide.

In 2013, I self-published 1000 copies of my first fine art book, Healing Hands, I subsequently reprinted an additional 1000 copies in 2015 and again in the summer of 2016. I accepted invitations to speak about my Healing Hands work at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Allied Health, at Ohio Wesleyan University and Spokane Community College School of Allied Health. I have also self-published my second book; with images and Haikus; Enchanted Land: A Taos Twenty Year Retrospective, which was an art book winner in the New Mexico/Arizona book awards. I began 2017 by self-publishing Winter Retreat at Mabel's; a volume of haiku poetry and imagery inspired by my last month living in Taos at the Historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House.

In January of 2017 I relocated to St. Augustine, Florida to be closer to my aged parents and have found new inspiration in the community of Lincolnville and in the In 1991 I purchased a camera at a second hand store and began shooting pictures. It became a passionate pastime and little did I know that my life would change in a drastic, beautiful and profound way. My photographic career began in 1993 after a trip to the Southwest. During that two week vacation I photographed the wide expanse of sky, the unique architecture and the varied landscape of the American Southwest and subsequently sold my first images. This inspired me to hang up my coat and tie after fifteen years in my nine-to-five job and move from the Washington, D.C. area to Taos, New Mexico where I was determined to pursue a new way of life. The journey as a self- taught photgrapher and gallery owner has not been easy, but it has been fruitful, fulfilling, life-enhancing, and ultimately, personally and aesthetically, successful. My goal has been to find, enhance and illustrate the beauty that is in front of our eyes in everyday life. From the beginning my career has been as a fine art photographer creating art and not being involved in other typical commercial photography. My work is propelled by the search for beauty and deeper truth conveyed in the medium of photography.

For twenty years, starting in 1998, I owned and operated The Living Light Photography Gallery in Taos, New Mexico. In 1999, I received an Honorable Mention at the 25th annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2000 I won my first Best of Photography at the 26th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2004 I won Best of Photography at the 30th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. In 2007 I had the distinction of being selected as a Taos Living Master by The Taos Fall Arts Festival Committee. In 2009 my work received a 3rd place People's Choice Award at the Millicent Roger's Museum Miniature Show and Sale in Taos. In 2010 I won Best of Show at the 36th Annual Taos Fall Arts Festival. The Living Light Gallery was voted the Taos News People's Choice Best Gallery in Taos 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. I also won the People's Choice, Best Of Show, 41st annual Taos Invites Taos, Fall Arts Festival, 2015. I have had images purchased for the Juried New Mexico's Art in Public Places Program in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and two images in 2016. In 2014 I was chosen poster artist for Music From Angel Fire 31st season Angel Fire, New Mexico. My work has been on view in prominent institutions in New Mexico such as: The Harwood Museum, Millicent Roger's Museum, The Taos Art Museum, the Albuquerque Museum and the Hubbard Museum of the American West. My work is also part of the permanent collections of The Harwood Museum, The Millicent Rogers Museum, The Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky and The Ross Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University. My work is also in the collection of Oklahoma University's College of Allied Health, The Snite Museum at The University of Notre Dame and most recently at The Lincolnville Museum and Cultural center in Saint Augustine, Florida. In addition, I'm honored to have my work added to many private collections worldwide.

In 2013, I self-published 1000 copies of my first fine art book, Healing Hands, I subsequently reprinted an additional 1000 copies in 2015 and again in the summer of 2016. I accepted invitations to speak about my Healing Hands work at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Allied Health, at Ohio Wesleyan University and Spokane Community College School of Allied Health. I have also self-published my second book; with images and Haikus; Enchanted Land: A Taos Twenty Year Retrospective, which was an art book winner in the New Mexico/Arizona book awards. I began 2017 by self-publishing Winter Retreat at Mabel's; a volume of haiku poetry and imagery inspired by my last month living in Taos at the Historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House.

In January of 2017 I relocated to St. Augustine, Florida to be closer to my aged parents and have found new inspiration in the community of Lincolnville and in the J.M. White did graduate study in Phenomenology at Duquesne University and holds an M.A. in philosophy from Vanderbilt. His poems, interviews, essays and book reviews have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Sewanee Review, Janus Head, Parabola and The Mirror as well as in magazines and journals in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and India. He has compiled and edited two books: Safe in Heaven Dead: Interviews with Jack Kerouac, and Opening to Our Primordial Nature by Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche. He currently has ten books in print: five of poetry and five of prose. His novel, Future Nothingness Already was published in 2005 and his first collection of poetry, The Beyond Within was published in 2008. His latest book is Luminous Minds: Encounters with Buddhist, Fourth Way and Native Teachers.