BEST KNOWN FOR HER dramatic coverage of equestrian events such as the Virginia Gold Cup, The Upperville Horse Show, and fox hunting, her best work is not as well known. Janet is a remarkable portrait and landscape photographer with her most accomplished pieces created in black and white.

Janet remodeled a section of her very lively barn to create her photography studio and offices so she can best serve her passions, photography and animal rescue. Five dogs, a cat, and an exceptional blond Belgian horse, retired, but still curious, greet visitors at the door.

Did the arts play a role when you were a child?

Art did not really have a big impact on me as a youth. My parents were both very intellectual people, and interested in the arts, they even sent me to the Corcoran (College of Art & Design) to learn painting and drawing. I was always frustrated because I couldn't draw very well and there were all these kids that were much better at it than I was.

Photography began to appeal to me because I could be artistic but did not have to draw it myself. When it was revealed to me that I could take photographs well, it made me realize that I would have loved to have been a really wonderful painter, and been able to draw, but I can't; however I can take good pictures.

Growing up, my focus was on the horse races not art. I never dreamed I would end up having a second career and that it was going to be as a photographer.

How did your romance with the camera begin?

When I first married, I was in the horse business big time, never home, always on the road doing festival and shows. I had a lot of clients. My husband didn't want me to do that, he wanted me to be a housewife, and stay at home. We had a big barn, and I must have had close to 40 horses there. So I gave my show customers away to various different friends who were also in the business. We kept a few boarders.

I decided a change was in order. I had always been curious about photography and while looking through a picture scrapbook I had taken of my trip to Europe during my junior year at college; I realized these photos were really quite good. I probably used just a cheap camera, a Brownie most likely. Even when I look back on them now I can see that I was a natural at taking pictures.

A series of events took shape then. I had a spinster Aunt, who was almost 70, who lived in New York City, she had never married, but one day she struck up a friendship, which led to a marriage with this man who lived in her building. He turned out to be a cousin of Richard Avedon. Well most of the Avedon family is involved with photography, many of the Avedon cousins are photographers, of course not as famous as Richard Avedon, and some are even in the retail camera business.

My Aunt marries into this family, her husband is very wealthy, a self made multi-millionaire several times over. I was sort of a favorite niece, and they knew I was interested in photography. The next thing I know, this large box arrives and it has in it a big Nikon and about four lenses, a book, also lots of film! It had with it this note that read, "Just start shooting", and so I did.

That was really the beginning. Then I wanted to know more about photography because I did not know what I was doing. I went back to the Corcoran where I had been originally so frustrated, and took many classes attending part time of course.

After completing my classes at the Corcoran I went to a place called Photo Works near Bethesda MD. There were a lot of really talented people hanging around there, and they were so amazed that I instantly had clients, because it is not that easy to make a living, of any kind, as a photographer. But it was so much easier for me to get started because all of the same people whose kids I had been teaching, taking to horse shows and foxhunt meets, all those people instantly became my clients. I feel blessed for that because I know how hard it is to make it as a professional photographer.

So that is how it began. Up to that point my life was about horses and I would never have guessed that it would be any different. I never thought that my focus could be moved as much as it has been away from horses onto photography.

Instead of leaping out of bed in the morning to get on a horse to ride out into the twilight, I'm grabbing my camera and looking for some beautiful light to photograph a horse, or to photograph a child. I actually like photographing people as much as like to do animals, and I love photographing people with their animals. I love seeing that relationship, and showing that relationship.

When did you move to Middleburg and how did that affect your relatively new photography business?

We came to Loudoun County over 12 years ago. I knew the area well because of several reasons including the horse business. I would have to say that a big break for me locally was getting the opportunity to shoot many of the covers for "In & Around Horse Country", a well-respected equestrian publication known nationally and internationally. I met Marion Maggiolo, its publisher, in Warrenton shortly after moving here, I owe a great deal to her for that exposure and support.

How do you approach portrait photography?

I would want to be able to see something good, kind, and soft about that person, and I would also like to make them look in a way that was pleasing to them. Photographing children is a whole different thing from photographing adults. They are nowhere near as self-conscious and are much more spontaneous about things. We have a set up here with lights for studio work, but what I prefer is to take people out to the woods, I'd rather be in a natural setting with available light.

Do you always keep a camera ready with a B&W roll on a shoot, or do you decide which cameras and film before hand?

I always have a camera loaded with B&W film, I have several cameras, but I usually keep my two Nikon F5's ready, one with color and the other with B&W. Although sometimes I will plan to do just B&W. I just have to have the B&W available, it is my true love and I think I see things more in B&W. I love that toning because it gives it that timeless look.

Have you experimented with digital cameras?

Yes, I have the Nikon D100 and I shoot a lot now in digital, but I still don't think it is quite as good as film when it comes to making a final print. It does however have so many other advantages, for one thing the instant gratification of being able to come home and download to my computer.

Are weddings a big part of your business?

The biggest part of my income is from wedding photography. You can count on it, you're hired way ahead of time, and actually I like it, and I never thought I would. Crowell Hadden is my Associate, we have been doing weddings for 15 years, he shoots in color and I in B&W. I see myself as a photojournalist; in fact my background is in journalism. So I like capturing what's going on, and I don't want to create it. This point of view captures some of our best moments in weddings.

The animal rescue work I do now is very important to me. As it is I have to turn down a lot of opportunities to travel and photography work in distant locations as well because of my commitment to the animals.

I feel that I'm lucky, I can have my studio/office here in the barn: I've got my horses, llamas, goats, got my dogs, and it works fairly well. It is exhausting at times.

I'll be out here late at night printing some stuff, or doing some job for a magazine that has to be emailed off to God knows where, and suddenly I'll remember I hadn't hayed the horses yet, or hadn't brought them in. They are all on a regular feeding schedule, but you sort of get the feeling here that the work is never done. It would be nice sometime to just shut the door, go home, put my feet up, turn the TV on, or just go to bed, or what ever and not have a world of things to be done.

On the other hand I love my animals. My Mother was a real animal person. She created a Humane Society over in Montgomery County that did a lot of rescue work and I feel I'm sort of carrying her tradition on but I can't do it fulltime. I help where I can, finding homes for dogs and farm animals…

Some of them stay, but you can't keep them all. Some of the ones I've got, like the little blind poodle over there, the Middleburg Humane for 2 or 3 years tried to find a home for her, and finally asked will you take her for a weekend! Well there you have it, she's home.

Janet Hitchen Photography
Middleburg, VA
www.janethitchenphotography.com