Ben
LeRoy
Ben LeRoy grew up and still lives on the north side of Madison, WI not far from Snake Hollow. He received his B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
He was the founder and publisher of Bleak House Books (2000-2009) and Tyrus Books (2009-2017) until the latter was sold to Simon & Schuster.
He co-runs Collaborist–a business dedicated to helping people identify and tell the stories of their lives.
In 2014, after the suicide death of a friend, Ben did volunteer work in all 50 states as part of the Be Local Everywhere project. He believes in helping where he can, when he can. He currently serves on the board of Common Wealth Development and Wrath-Bearing Tree.
When not doing other things, he is a steadfast explorer of the universe through a variety of disconnected modalities in an effort to make sense of the how and the why and the what of our shared existence. Of late, one of those modalities includes projecting photographs onto the paintings of artist Baxter Montgomery in an effort to find micro worlds and stories in the combined images (paintings and photographs).
He wishes you well on your journey.
What are you doing? What's with all of these photographs?
I asked friends to send me photographs that showed them how they saw themselves. My suspicion was that there was a photo in everybody’s collection that they thought represented what they saw in the mirror, but for whatever reason they didn’t want to feel vain about it. My initial plan was to project that photo onto a Baxter Montgomery painting in the pursuit of showing them how I saw them seeing themselves.
I wanted people to feel seen and I wanted to reflect that back to them in the hybrid image. I wanted them to see how I saw their most authentic self.
What I’d expected to be a fun (but earnest) project took on a different emotional tone the more I looked at the photos. In my pursuit of capturing something fun, l was gifted with a much bigger opportunity—to contemplate the nature of the people in my life who I hold dear, to reflect on the importance of my love and friendship, to celebrate them in a form bigger than 21st Century Earth.
Where I had envisioned sending a photo or two back to them, I ended up recording long videos and audio messages to tell people how important they are to me and how appreciative I am of their presence in my life.
At this point, what had started as a whimsical project turned into something I dove into with true and genuine fervor to remind myself that no matter how chaotic the world may seem and how powerless we may feel against the gears of systems that impress upon us their will, nothing could take away the miracle of my experience with these people.
It was as if by adding color and texture to the images I was seeing the emotions represented in all of their clumsy effusiveness, pure as the moment they were first experienced.
I shared the initial images with my friends, in many cases among people who did not otherwise know each other. Their reaction to strangers, the questions they asked and the stories I could tell about how special all of these other human beings are to me and to the world at large, was absolutely responsible for getting me through some rough days.
It wasn’t surprising that people immediately asked if they could contribute photos of their own lives, especially pets, to see how things would look. Before long I had an inbox full of dogs, cats, birds, and sheep photographs. I heard stories and found myself smiling at the joy, energy, and goofiness.
Some of the furred and feathered friends I’ve seen.
For a period of a decade I traveled a lot and I documented most of those trips heavily with whatever contemporary camera technology I had. As I went through my archives I saw photos of trips to busy cities, remote outposts, foreign countries, and all 50 states. Projecting the photo on the paintings allowed me to relive the experience in a new and novel way.
I’ve modified the process a little bit since starting. Instead of one painting being used as a screen, I now set up a wall of paintings, sometimes numbering 30 or more, and use that as a backdrop. The increased variance in color and texture makes for an even more dramatic experience. I often use colored lamps strategically placed in the room to further emphasize the otherworldliness of what I’m perceiving.
That leads to another unexpected outcome in this process, one that I will discuss at a later time. It’s a little less tangible, but perhaps just as important, to what can be discovered and what we can do with our discovery.
© 2025 Ben LeRoy. All rights reserved.