Jeanne Widmer

The Years That Walk Between

In between the smiling poses at special events and holidays, we live our lives. Happy, sad, afraid, confident, we seek out others for work, companionship or fun; we may find solitude to rest, do chores, read and, occasionally, reflect. We are all those moments.

Children do the same. With a purpose we adults cannot always understand, they play, they pause, they seek others, and they are alone. And like adults, it is during those unscripted moments that their real selves surface.

As a grandparent I carry few smiling photos of grandchildren in my purse or on my iPhone ready to display. Rather, I am captivated by the moments in between on the sides of life, the unguarded and revealing minutes or even seconds of their lives, the real images of childhood we sometimes miss when looking for something else. It is those I am sharing with you.

Artist Bio

Growing up in Rhode Island shaped Jeanne Widmer’s comfort in slightly worn urban locations and colorful personalities. There she invented games with friends, created comic book stories, enjoyed painting and took photos of friends and family in unscheduled moments.

In recent years, Widmer has studied photography at the Arlington Center for the Arts, the Griffin Museum, and the New England School of Photography. Besides a number of class exhibits, she has had two solo exhibits: the first, “95 Years of History” at the Belmont Media Center, captured the 95th anniversary of the Studio Cinema, one of the area’s few remaining single screen movie theaters.  The second, “History in Low Light” at the Beech Street Center, highlighted Waverley Square, an historic, working class center of Belmont. In both she worked with low interior light or the subtle drama of dawn or dusk to capture both the expectation and vibrancy in the color and darkness of the theater and the transformative mood of the square’s quiet dignity. That mystery of capture is what moved her to photograph her grandchildren in unguarded and revealing moments in the current Griffin Atelier exhibit.

Widmer has been a high school and college instructor, an educational consultant, a journalist, a writing, college and career coach, hypnotherapist, a school board member/chair and Town Meeting Member. She received a writing award from the New England Press Association and an award from the Town of Belmont for notable volunteer contributions. Widmer has an undergraduate degree in English/history, a master’s degree in English, and a doctorate in psychology and behavioral studies.

Contact Jeanne Widmer