NH NOW opens at the Belknap Mill, with iconic photos of New Hampshire life, including many in the Lakes Region

LACONIA — Firefighters in dry suits training for ice water rescue on a below-zero day, next to the M/S Mount Washington docked for the winter. North Country high school cross country skiers racing in the shadow of the state’s tallest peak.

A Cog Railway car wending its way up one of the world’s steepest tracks. Two beer drinkers on a porch strewn with chairs and antique stoves. Ice fishing on Meredith Bay.

These iconic images reveal the soul of New Hampshire, a photographic tour of everything ordinary or eccentric, including portraits of people doing things that give their lives meaning in our rambling, sumptuous state.

"New Hampshire Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State" is a book and a gallery show of unforgettable moments and lucky glimpses, opening Friday night with a reception from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Belknap Mill — one of eight locations statewide to host the exhibit, book signing and sale.  Three years in the making and inspired by famous chronicles of American life during the Great Depression, New Hampshire Now compiles current images captured by 46 photographers in seven regions of New Hampshire, including Gary Sampson, the state’s seventh artist laureate, who directed the visual history project, a collaboration of the New Hampshire Historical Society and the New Hampshire Society of Photographic Artists. The exhibit and album feature many Lakes Region photographs by Ian Raymond of Sanbornton, who has a studio in downtown Laconia on Main Street across from the Colonial Theatre.

“The mill has been a center of community for 200 years, and this book shows the community of New Hampshire,” said Tara Shore, program manager at the Belknap Mill Society. “Our mission is arts, history and education. All these photographers and all their work, we’re honored to be a place to show that.”

Many of the images are moving or breathtaking. Others make you feel joy. Some are snapshots of complex, inscrutable emotions. A good number are scenes from the Lakes Region taken by Raymond, who has been taking pictures since he got his first camera at age five. He has a collection of 40 cameras dating from the 1800s to 2012.

For Raymond, the project began two and a half years ago, when he and his wife made a list and got in their car. He was prepared to photograph some obvious events of interest, and hoping to stumble upon magic and record it in single pieces.

“I drove around the state trying to find something interesting and find 10 more things along the way,” said Raymond. “Some subjects are incredibly ephemeral and by the time you go back, you’ve missed it.” Raymond served as a local state representative in 2013 and 2014, but had never explored the state’s nether reaches, which turned up surprising events and people, most of whom agreed to be photographed.

His photos are a smorgasbord: Tilton-Northfield’s Old Home Day Homecoming Queen glowing as she waves from the back of a pickup. Raymond’s grandson Connor, age five, in full firefighter gear, standing on the running board of a firetruck at the Gilmanton Fire Department, where his father worked until recently. A Laconia Motorcycle Week entertainer smiling broadly, clad in a camouflage swimsuit under her leather jacket, with a matching camouflage pattern boa constrictor curled around her neck.

"It’s a great way to show the evolution of culture and society,” said Raymond. “Some things you photograph you realize are of historical importance.” He photographed the Black Lives Matter rally in Concord, with thousands on the lawn of the State House. He chronicled the restoration of the Colonial Theatre as seen from his studio across the street. In crisscrossing the state, he photographed a medical marijuana farm tucked out of the way in southwestern New Hampshire, and the Tullando Farm, the state’s first robotic dairy farm, where 400 to 450 cattle are fed, watered and even back-scratched by computerized equipment.

During the pandemic, Raymond and his wife “just got in the car and started driving. We hopped in the car with no particular destination in mind. We hit pretty much every town. It was interesting to go into the nooks and crannies of New Hampshire and see what was happening there.”

They met interesting people, including artists, craftsmen and pioneers. Sometimes they were invited to stay for lunch.

“Anybody who does something with a passion — it’s refreshing to see people who are really into what they do. Being a photographer, the idea you get a look into people’s lives that are so different from your own. It’s an incredible window,” said Raymond.

His photo expedition included visiting Ben Killham and his sister Phoebe who run a a rehabilitation center and sanctuary for black bears in the Upper Valley. They recently rescued a three-month old cub with a form of encephalitis, that had been abandoned by its mother. The cub frolicked like a puppy at their feet. Raymond also photographed a veteran and his therapy dog flyfishing in Pittsburgh, which seemed empty and almost devoid of life during the pandemic. The only souls he encountered were either fishing or driving ATVs in the woods.

He photographed Ernest Thompson, writer director of “On Golden Pond,” outside a fundraiser at Pitman’s Freight Room in Laconia.

Roughly 55 color and black and white photos by a dozen photographers are included in the show on two floors at the Belknap Mill.

The fact that the Mill was selected as one of the venues for New Hampshire NOW “was an incredible honor,” said Karen Prior, executive director of the Belknap Mill Society. “The Lakes Region is really changing and Laconia is on the move. Look at all the energy and revitalization that’s happening. This exhibition shows the Lake Region at its best.”