Photographic artist Les Allen’s gallery show, “The Shape of Light,” moves its viewers to unlock hidden meanings in the interplay of natural and artificial objects.

The show is on display at Sauk Valley Community College in the second-floor east-end art gallery until Nov. 20. Viewing is free to the public.

What one finds is as personal to themselves as it is to the artist.

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Photographic artist Les Allen points out objects in one of his works on display Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. The show will be up until Nov. 20 in the second-floor, east-end art gallery at Sauk Valley Community College in Dixon. (Alex T. Paschal)

Armed with a glue gun; a large-format camera; and a menagerie of bottles, roots, glass and found objects, Allen sculpts still-life compositions with little idea of where they’re going and doesn’t let titles condition the viewer to see too much into the piece.

In one work, Allen describes an upside-down elephant ear root that reminds him of some kind of creature.

“It’s titled ‘Guardian of the Portal,’ but what’s the portal? I don’t know,” Allen said, laughing. “If I described everything, it kind of takes away from it.”

The confluence of these botanical specimens and ordinary objects is in many ways reflective of the process Allen goes through to create the still life, melding the free expression of building the works to the rigid measures of large-format photography.

He said “everything is experimental” until he gets into the dark room and precision is necessary.

In the end, his works are strange and beautiful. The tonality is rich, from the deep blacks to the warm whites, and all made possible by his manipulation of light and shadow.

Using strobe and hot lights, reflector cards, multiple exposures and, most of all, patience, Allen has created a gallery show that challenges and excites.

“I want to evoke ideas,” Allen said.