Leighanne Saltsman has been taking photos since she learned how to work a Pentax K-1000 in 1996. She now shoots with a Canon Rebel T4i and a very nice lens, but her iPhone 8 Plus is never far from reach. She is an on-location natural light photographer and prides herself on her unique captures of places, people and objects in their natural surroundings.  

Saltsman attended Oberlin College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Arts. When she trains a lens on her subject, she feels has the extreme privilege of inhabiting a distilled moment in time together with that subject. In that moment, both photographer and photographed are free from the constraints of an always-on, digitally saturated life. In that moment, they create together a weightlessness, an honesty, and a sense of calm that is precious.

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Leighanne is also an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active performance career since the mid-2000s. Due to her wide vocal range and command of varied musical styles, she sings and performs folk music and jazz in addition to classical repertoire.

Born and raised in Rhinebeck, New York, Saltsman attended the Oberlin Conservatory where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance. She went on to earn her stripes as a professional chorister in New York City, where early on in her career she won recognition from several prestigious members of the classical music community. These connections came with opportunities to premier works by Joan LaBarbara in 2005, teach The Wooster Group in 2005, and appear as a chorister under the batons of Lorin Maazel and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Her recent performance credits include charter membership in the Downtown Voices Choir of Trinity Wall Street, as well as NYC appearances as half of a vocal harmony duo presenting historically accurate renditions of music from Golden Age of American Popular Song. She has also written and recorded a demo-length album of original music, arranged and presented jazz versions of Purcell arias at SPECTRUM NYC, and toured Vermont as part of the shape note ensemble Bright Wings Chorus.

Leighanne has many years of experience in Arts Administration / Music Management, and her employers have included Judy Collins, Sharon Isbin, Mark O'Connor and Bethany Yarrow among others. 

In 2015, after more than a decade of hustling, saving and city living, Leighanne and her husband Mathew put their money where their mouths were and plunked $240,000 on a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom cape-style house on a quarter of an acre in Rhinebeck, NY. They dreamed of a quiet, bucolic place that they could call their own, and from the first night they laid their heads down to rest in the bedroom that was three times the size of anything they'd ever owned before, they knew a new era of their life together had begun.

As they spent more time in Dutchess County they realized that their little piece of land was more than just a pastoral dream. It was a lifeline for friends and loved ones who needed a little peace and quiet. It was a centering force in their harried lives. It was an antidote to a world that values progress over tried and true solutions, quick meals over food made with love, and flashy treasures over what the earth can provide. 

Today Matt and Leighanne's little piece of paradise hosts guests most every weekend in the summer, and Leighanne is able to put her experience as a cook, head of housekeeping and manager of a high-end Bed and Breakfast to very good use. Last summer she and Matt designed and built eight new raised beds for their kitchen garden. They also made more than their fair share of jams, chutneys and pickles.