September 20, 2026
Photographer Holly Lepere was born and raised in Duncanville, Texas, a small town outside Dallas. As a sophomore she took beginning photography, processing and printing film in the high school darkroom as she shot campus events for the yearbook with her Canon AE-1.
She took that camera to University of Texas at Austin and eventually to Santa Barbara’s now-shuttered Brooks Institute of Photography. At Brooks, she added a 4×5 film camera but overall her quiver remained small, she remembers. “Sometimes limitations in gear force creativity, and I think learning to work with what I had was valuable early in my career.”
We caught up with Lepere for more on her education, career and a new book, Private Homes of Santa Barbara (Gibbs Smith, 2026), due out in October.
G&C: What led you to Brooks and what was your emphasis?
Lepere: Photography was my favorite subject at UT Austin, but the program was very small at the time, so I decided to find the best photography school in the country. My father was in advertising and arranged interviews with several photographers who worked on his agency’s campaigns. Through those conversations, I learned that the top choices were Brooks Institute, ArtCenter in Los Angeles, and RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology) in upstate New York. Of course, I chose Santa Barbara!
At Brooks, I focused on commercial photography, which felt like a natural fit given my interest in working with people and telling stories through images.
Anything else you’d like to add about your time at Brooks?
Brooks was a very small school when I attended, with only about 300 students. All of my teachers were wonderful. Bob Smith was particularly encouraging. Even after I moved away, I would call him, and in his wonderful Southern drawl he would remind me, “Girl-child, you are a survivor. You can do this!” Brooks gave me the confidence and commitment to pursue photography professionally.
What happened next?
A week after I graduated from Brookes, I went to NYC armed with a list of Brooks grads working there. After two years of freelance assisting, I had worked in almost every area of photography. I met Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and many of the most successful photographers working in the city at the time.
I struck freelance gold when I got steady work with a photographer who exclusively photographed for Blair, one of America’s oldest mail-order catalog companies. We traveled all over the country photographing models on location, shooting everything to size for print on an 8×10 film camera. This was great training for me because everything was shot on transparency film, so the color and exposure had to be perfect. I relied on both a light meter and a color meter, sometimes needing to color-correct the lights with gels to match ambient indoor light. Shooting 8×10 transparency was incredibly challenging compared to today’s digital landscape, but it taught me to really see and understand light, color, and exposure.
What sparked your interest in the landscaping/design photography that you showcase in your new book (pictured above)?
Toward the end of my time assisting photographers in New York, before I knew what kind of photographer I wanted to become, I spent most Sundays in bookstores poring over photography books. One afternoon, as I was leaving Barnes & Noble, a circular table stacked with beautiful coffee table garden books caught my eye. I remember thinking, “I want to make a garden book someday.” I didn’t know it at the time, but that little moment was a glimpse of my future.
When did you launch your own photo business and why’d you return to Santa Barbara?
Going from assistant to photographer felt like a big leap. I took a break from assisting and took a solo trip around the world. When I returned, I got a job in Dallas shooting advertising for JCPenney. After three years of that, I was ready to come back to Santa Barbara and start my own photography business in the most beautiful place I’d ever been. In 2001, I bought my first digital camera, audited a Photoshop class at Brooks, and took a business class through Women’s Economic Ventures taught by Dawn Close. Dawn’s business partner was Margie Grace, who had just started her landscape design business. Grace Design became my first client.
Almost twenty years later, Dawn told me she wanted to publish a book of Margie’s work. I remembered that flash of inspiration in the bookstore years earlier. Together, Dawn, Margie, and I realized that dream with Private Gardens of Santa Barbara, published by Gibbs Smith in 2020.
Sounds like that set the stage for your new book.
At the end of 2024, Amy Davidson from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art told me that the museum store was selling out of the Private Gardens book every month. She asked if I would do another book in the series. Gibbs Smith agreed to my vision of creating a series that celebrates the talented design community in Santa Barbara through a wide variety of projects.
With Private Homes of Santa Barbara, I photographed different types of homes in a variety of photographic styles. It was an opportunity to showcase the work of my architecture and interior design clients, as well as the landscape. It was also important to me that the architects, designers, and builders each have a voice in the book. A residential home is the result of tremendous collaboration, and I wanted that reflected in the book through their project narratives.
Anything you’d like to add?
A portion of the book proceeds will support Amor, a nonprofit that builds homes for families in need. You can read more about them at amor.org.
