Through the Notch
Franconia, New Hampshire
2025
Shot For
Location
Photography
McGray & Nichols
Lake Sunapee, NH
James Reed Photography
Designed to sit within the White Mountain landscape rather than announce itself, this house balances familiar New England forms with expansive views of Franconia Notch. We shot it over one day in high summer with wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada, which changed everything.
THE SITE
The house doesn't compete with what's around it. It settles into the meadow and opens every room toward the ridge. That restraint is what makes it work as a building and as a subject.
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ON THE LIGHT
By mid-morning the smoke had softened the light into something diffuse and amber. Hard shadows disappeared. The meadow went warm and still. It was not the day we expected, but it was the right one.
BLUE HOUR
The White Mountains have a specific quality at the end of a summer day — the heat lifts, the ridgeline sharpens, and whatever haze hung over the valley during shooting hours finally works in your favor. This house was designed for exactly this moment. The proportions, the materials, the way it sits on the land, it all reads clearest when the lights come on and the sky goes dark behind it.
