Shade Tobacco: A Diminishing Landscape

Discover the fascinating and beautiful world of Windsor’s shade tobacco industry through the images of local photographer Leonard Hellerman.  This online presentation will be drawn from several thousand images he has taken in the last decade of Windsor’s distinctive tobacco sheds, netting used for the production of shade tobacco, tobacco workers and the tobacco plants themselves.

            “I am drawn to the tobacco industry because of aesthetics -- its potential for generating beautiful images,” says Hellerman.  “It’s central to the culture of this area, and I have also known people involved in this industry for many years.”

Hellerman took up photography at the age of 14 and is a lifelong resident of the greater Windsor area.  For decades he practiced as a dentist here in town.    Hellerman is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and his work has been accepted for its juried exhibitions for the past seven years. During the winter months, he photographs and teaches at the prestigious Palm Beach Photographic Centre, a non-profit institution that conducts photographic workshops with such nationally known photographers as Arnold Newman, Douglas Kirkland, and Joyce Tenneson.  Windsor residents are most familiar with his photographs on the cover of the Windsor Town Events Calendar.

Please click on an image to enlarge.