Jean-Claude Lejeune, of Greenfield, was born in Paris and began taking photographs while he was in his teens. His wife, Jacqueline Lejeune, was born in Derbyshire, Britain and spent her childhood playing and working with her father in the garden.
“He was a great gardener tending flowers, vegetables and fruit with all kinds of berries,” Jacqueline Lejeune recalled. About 50 years ago, she and Jean-Claude Lejeune met in Montreal. But Montreal was not a place for a wedding. The wedding took place in Derbyshire.
Some time after the wedding, they found themselves in Chicago, where they lived and worked for years. Jacqueline Lejeune was a woman of many parts, from working with friends as caterers to being the director of public relations for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
At the time, Jean-Claude Lejeune was a professional stock photographer providing black and white photographs for sale. He took photographs of everything that interested him and anything that was requested — always in black and white.
When they were looking for a good school for their son, they worked their way to Northfield. And once the family was settled, Jacqueline Lejeune started teaching in Warwick.
Never in all her years, from her life in Britain until she and Jean-Claude Lejeune moved to Bernardston (where they lived for 26 years until moving to Greenfield in 2019), had she ever tended her own garden. In Bernardston, they had a charming house, surrounded by grass and trees and a barn. But no garden yet.
In the spring, a friend brought her a gift plant and Jacqueline Lejeune took her shovel and dug a hole for the plant outside. Unfortunately, it turned out that there were only a few inches of soil.
All the rest was asphalt.
That was how the garden began. Bit by bit, she dug away at the asphalt over the years. She made rich spaces and planted all kinds of flowers that were joined by all kinds of insects. In her retirement, there was even more to do in her garden.
Jacqueline Lejeune found a lot to do, but noted, “Gardening for me has always been a form of meditation and very relaxing no matter how hard the work. I think all gardeners would agree.”
When the garden began to grow, Jacqueline Lejeune asked her husband to take pictures, but he only had black and white equipment. Around that time, Jean-Claude Lejeune said digital cameras were becoming popular.
“I thought I would try it and bought a cheap camera; the color pictures I took were really good. I took some closeups and I was very surprised at the results,” he said. His forays into the garden became a regular routine.
“Sometimes after my coffee, I go out into the garden and if I see something interesting I have to run back to the house and get my camera. I can take pictures in different conditions, from frost or rain or fog or sun. I just have to take the moment. I have experience and I know these moments don’t last very long. When there are raindrops on the cleomes (spider flower), the slightest wind will knock all the raindrops off. If you wait too long, raindrops dry very quickly. You have to act quickly,” he said.
Jacqueline Lejeune added that she has seen surprising things in the garden.
“Some bees go to sleep in the flowers at night and then they fly off in the morning sun. The bees sleeping in the shade take a while to wake up. We also learned a fascinating thing about the bees — they take a nap during the day. And if it is raining, the bees will stay under a leaf until the rain is gone,” she said. Jacqueline Lejeune enjoys discovering the mystery of flowers and creatures just as much as her husband.
While it was the flowers that initially prompted Jean-Claude Lejeune to take his camera into the garden, he also began photographing the region’s colorful butterflies and many insects, large and small. And with so much to see, Jean-Claude Lejeune says it was time to buy a good camera with a macro lens.
They started to notice that many of the insects had fur. Scientists have learned that the protein in insect “fur” or “hairs” is most accurately referred to as “seta” (plural setae). The protein used in mammals’ fur is known as keratin.
Honeybees are very furry, for example, and that fur is used to attract and catch pollen which is then carried back to the hive. Moths are also very furry, but butterflies have very fine hairs. In these cases the ‘fur’ is setae.
Jean-Claude Lejeune says is careful and observant when he is in the garden.
“When I am choosing flowers to shoot, I find that certain flowers don’t hold up very well. The cosmos is one of my favorites. It photographs beautifully. I am attracted by the colors and shape, and then I create a composition to make the photograph more attractive. When I look at the pictures at home, 99 percent of the time I will find unexpected elements there, spiders or just a (insect) claw or a head. Observation is absolutely essential,” Jean-Claude Lejeune explained. “The Monarch is very shy. When you use a macro lens, you have to come within a foot of the lens. Maybe even closer. The expression I use — I was so close I could feel the breath of the butterfly. Then the butterfly will go away and I’ll have to wait for half an hour for it to come back. I can take pictures for just a couple of minutes and then they fly away.”
Jean-Claude Lejeune said that people sometimes ask him if he couldn’t just grab a picture really quick. He said grabbing a picture is really not a good idea, that pictures have to be posed. Taking photos of butterflies and other insects takes patience and time. Even so, Jean-Claude Lejeune says “every year there are one or two of each species that are not afraid of me at all. More than 90 percent would always fly away, but there was always one that would completely ignore me.”
Jean-Claude Lejeune says many people ask him how to take good photographs, but his advice is not simple.
“The first step in photography is looking. Find a strong interest. What am I attracted to? Landscapes? Nature? Cities? Architecture? Streetlife? Oceans? Observing is a prerequisite to seeing,” he said. “When a true connection between the photographer and the world is made, miracles can happen. Taking these photographs go beyond enjoyment: each photograph can be a re-connection to and a recognition of the world in which I live.
“As the French photographer, Cartier-Bresson once wrote, a photograph is saying ‘yes’ to the world. Each photograph is a meditation on a moment that cannot be replicated. It is a testimony to my connection to the present moment. A photograph is a thought that can be seen. The chant of a heart that can be heard, unfolding in the here and now, a celebration of being. The world is indeed returning my gaze in which I can see a reflection of self, in the palms of life. I photograph therefore I see. A photograph is a clue to the mystery of life revealing itself. A photograph is a love letter to the world; a testimony to being. Seeing, truly seeing, is loving,” he said.
And that is why Jean-Claude Lejeune is a photographer. His work can be viewed at jeanclaudelejeune.com.
Pat Leuchtman has been writing and gardening since 1980. Her column, “Between the Rows,” was published weekly in the Recorder for about 40 years. Readers can leave comments at her website: commonweeder.com.