After another interstate haul I arrived last night in Maine. Again a wrong turn took me toward York Beach, Maine. Looking in the rv site book I found The York Beach Camper Park but there was no cell service and so as it began to get dark and I began to wonder how to find the place there it was just ahead on the right.
The York Beach Camper Park is a great little rv park. As you drive in your are greeted by numerous small vignettes of plaster animals and other adornments with one of the focal points being uncle sam tied up with Christmas light in a sleigh Then I met Dianne, at the office, and after half hour of Maine hospitality I got into my site and needed to find lobster. Turns out a 5 min walk took me to the beach, restaurants and the boardwalk. After a lobster dinner I went back and got Henry and had a good walk along the beach. Today will be the first full day to explore the coast of Maine. I remember old sea towns and rough coasts from my childhood. I’m curious how well the memories will hold true.
York Beach Camp
Water at York Beach
Henry’s first lobster
5 am awoke to rain filtering through heavy pine trees. Finally back to the small roads and time to stop and photograph and just enjoy the show.
Since Atlanta we’ve been taking big roads and in a bit of a rush to arrive in Maine. Not the way to see the country. You miss so much on the interstate; lose the flavor of the land you’re passing through.
There still is an individual america out there but you gotta get off the big road and search it out. It’s no where near as obvious as it was in the sixties, the last time I spent time on the road, but it is still there. Behind the walmarts, mcdonalds, home depots, burger kings and strip malls, not to mention all the manufactured housing, you can still find the small Mom and Pop stores and People living lives that involve a structure somehow different than the mall culture we’ve all come to accept.
Cruising down the back roads of Maine takes me through small towns and 35 mile an hour speed limits allow me to truly see the land I am traveling through. Wandering down Highway 90 I passed, then turned around (it still amazes me I can turn the truck and trailer around on the small roads, remember I’m 50 feet long!) and came back to Conrad LeBourdais’s home. What caught my eye was a forest green wood frame garage, hidden among the trees, with many horned animal skulls adorning it. That in and of it self is quite typical here but the human skeleton amongst the other animal bones set this one apart.
When one first approaches a stranger’s home, especially to ask to photograph (and you always ask!) there are moments of hesitation, if not terror, as to who you will find and what reactions they may have. There is a moment when you want to turn and run but know the photograph is worth the fear so you continue and usually find there is so much more to photograph once you meet the folks behind the walls. The door to the trailer next to the garage opened and out came Conrad LeBourdai. A more engaging man you’d be hard pressed to find.
After explaining why I was in his yard and how much I admired his garage wall, especially the human element, I was immediately ushered around the back of his home and into the den to see all the other antlers and memorabilia of his life. The walls were full of deer and moose antlers, photographs and american Indian imagery. Along one wall was an old gun rack full of walking sticks with curious carving on them. Turns out Conrad is a carver, in addition to many other talents. At first glance the sticks feel american Indian but as you get into the imagery you realize it is more African or Egyptian. Soon Conrad is flipping through the National Geographic Magazines piled in the corner to show me the origins of his work.
The only time he has been out of Maine was when he served in the “Big War”.
After returning to the garage and making his portrait I was gifted with two of his walking sticks and a wreath, also made by him, of marine rope, a small plastic bird and plastic flowers.
With a plastic bird keeping watch over me as I headed down the road.
Nubble Light House
DMK and HCD at York Beach
August 3, 2004 – 10:28 AM
Left the morning of July 29 to meet my friends Joan Bueling and Jerry Herring out on Vinal Haven Island about 12 miles off the coast of Maine. They were staying at their friend Joe Kaemplers home. To get there you take an hour plus ferry ride from Rockland. The ferry is a small commercial ferry holding about 16 cars, depending on their size.
Joe’s house is fantastic as is Joe and his son, Luke. I spent a wonderful afternoon and evening getting to know Joe his friend Elaine and the island while catching up with Joan and Jerry. We have started a project with Jerry digitally printing some of the Longhorn images 40×50 to donate to the Longhorn Museum outside of Huston Texas.
Next morning I made a portrait of Joe and his son and then caught the afternoon ferry back to the main land.
The house that Joey Built
Downeast at Joeys’
Vinal Haven Island
After coming off the island I have spent the last few days exploring the many fingers that reach out into the see around Camden. I’ve been finding“sameness” to the eastern Landscape. Very closed in and quite similar as you go from state to state, but Maine is more akin to New Mexico with constantly changing vistas and geographic formations.
Traveled up from Camden yesterday through mountains, fields, wood, lakes and seashore and arrive in Ellsworth mid afternoon. Then off to Mount Desert Island and some great photographs. Photographed “the most photographed spot in Maine” the Bass Harbor Light House. Think I made a great image. One of the few times I’ve found that “the most photographed site” actually is something I can work with. Its hard working here because the coast consists of miles of fingers going out into the sea so there are miles to drive trying to find ways down to the water and a good deal of the waterfront is private. But the miles are full of surprises with small fields and valleys, little ponds and quaint villages to photograph. The fog comes in at unpredictable times and places to delight and give an eerie feel to the landscape.
Today it’s back to Mount Desert Island to explore the fingers more.
DMK shooting Bass Harbor Lighthouse
Doubling Point Light
Arrowsic Island
Shooting on Arrowsic Island
Heather at Arrowsic Island
Great place to eat on Arrowsic Island!
Great place to buy dinner
August 8, 2004 – 10:28 PM
Patton Pond RV Resort
Photographed William Coombs today in Prospect Harbor, Maine while he was waiting for the tide to come in and his boat to rise. That’s his boat, The Narda Jean, behind him in the photograph below. William is a lobster fisherman and has been most of his life. He spent about 10 years up in the woods working but other than that his life has been here, on the sea, catching lobster. I spent about an hour talking and photographing. The great thing about this trip is meeting and talking with folks like Bill. It still amazes me how willing folks are to stop what they are doing and be photographed, without even asking why. No one has ever said no or even asked why I want to they just seem to feel it’s a good thing to do and for that I’m so grateful. As I set up and begin to make the image I do tell them a bit about myself and the trip and that I will send them a print but they give themselves freely before that.
Lobster Fishing facts:
1. You work 2 years as an apprentice to a local fisherman, in the area you plan to fish, learning the area, tides, bottom and getting to know the local folks. Then you can get a license.
2. The federal license is good from the Canadian boarder down through Massachusetts and allows you to fish anywhere.
3. Local tradition has much more to do with where you can fish than does the federal license. And if the locals don’t like you, you don’t fish there. A knife stuck in a buoy is your first warning that you’ve encroached on someone’s territory.
4. Female lobsters with eggs are marked with a “V” in their tail and released. You have to release them but don’t have to mark them. Once marked they can never be kept by a fisherman when caught, so it insures a good supply of females who remain breading stock, if the fishermen mark them. The more that are marked the greater the chance that the lobster population will stay healthy. This limits the immediate supply as you may catch the same female again minus her eggs that same season but looking long term you want to mark many.
5. The last few years a good day was 400 to 500 lbs. a day. This year it’s been about 50 lbs per day.
6. Lobsters, like crawfish do bury up in the mud and lay dormant.
7. Lobsters do molt up to 20 times before they reach 1 ¼ lbs. There old hard shells molt away and underneath is a new very soft shell that takes awhile to get hard again.
8. New Shells have less meat but taste sweater. When you break open a new shell claw you are surprised to find it only about half full of meat, but you can break it apart with your hands and eating one is very easy work.
9. This being america, it seems the hard (old shells) are in more demand. Quantity over quality apparently!
William Cooms
DMK and William Coombs
In Honor of John Rudiak
August 8, 2004 – 10:30 PM
perhaps another cup of coffee…….
Getting closer
A Sailboat in the water
A`sailboat in the fog
A crab on land
A lobster in a bag
A part of a crab on land
A hand holding blueberries
A dog without an ear
A tree in the fog
A tree at Jordan Pond
dmk shooting rocks
August 8, 2004 – 10:40 PM
Images from the last few days on Mt. Desert Island and in Acadia National Park. Page may take a few moments to load – coffee refill time!
Dmk at Thunderhole
DMK shooting Bass Harbor Lighthouse
Salisbury Cove
little friend
August 9, 2004 – 10:39 PM
Patton Pond RV Resort
Woke up 5am to Henry crying by the bed. Henry never cries so something was up. Out the door we went, me in my bathrobe, Henry in a very big hurry. He took off among the RV’s before I could get the leash on him and “visited” about five camp sites before I caught up with him to gain some control. Had the worst case of diarrhea I’ve ever seen. But the morning had begun and the sunrise over the lake was superb so I grabbed the camera and off I went. The fog was just lifting from the lake and the light was great all I needed was some subject matter. Let’s see there is the beach, some white wooden chairs on it next to the dock with a boat at the end of it and a guy sitting having early morning coffee, looken good, hum, the swimmer’s float looks good out in the water. It’s beginning to come together. And here come the boys, two of them about 15 years old up at 5 am for a swim. Who says the Youth of america is soft. They jump in the water and I’ve almost got an image- before morning coffee, Maine has been good to me. As they swim around, the world begins to look perfect, until their waves begin to rock the dock my tripod is resting on. Damn for an instant I thought I’d found it! They quite down and the dock stops rocking. Now only if they will, and they are, swimming out towards the swimmer’s float! Nope they hold on to it for a bit but never leave the water and swim back to shore. The light is going but it’s too good an image so I find the courage and shout out. “Hey guys wanta swim out to the float and stand on it so I can make a photograph”? The response is “Sure, that would be cool!” and off they go. I’m stunned, but as they climb up onto the float the photograph comes together. A bit more mist comes in, and the sun peeks over the mountain. I’ve been give another gift. For a brief while the world is perfect. As I walk back to camp I begin to wonder, did I expose the film correctly?
August 13, 2004 – 9:06 AM
Awoke to another blistery Maine day. Cool (cold) ocean breeze singing in the trees. Been listening to Canadian Public Radio the last few days. Quite good. Right now Swahili music is a welcome addition to the morning. Today is the first day I’ve just relaxed at the campsite. Time to regroup, clean up and plan the next move. First day I’ve slept past 5 am in awhile. Nice to sleep in to nine. On the 9th I motored up the coast to Lubec and have spent the last 4 days exploring the area. Much to see here. Inland there are Artic Bogs, great old growth trees, as much water as land and blueberry fields strewn with boulders. Interesting to see migrant workers picken blueberries. The coast line is rough with massive cliffs and more old growth trees. Each day the fog blankets the land and sea scapes until well after noon and it adds a magical quality to the place. The tide rises over 20 feet and the coast line changes as you watch. Two days ago I crossed over a thin strip of land to shoot two boulders and 20 minutes later when I turned around to cross back the thin strip had disappeared under 5 inches of water. Lesson learned. In a strange way Maine reminds me of New Mexico around each turn in the road is a different landscape and it is constantly changing from deep old growth forests to open ocean vistas. Yesterday we roamed down a dirt road and found Scottish Highland Cows (see photo below) in amongst the boulders and bogs on a hillside just feet away from the ocean. It feels like the end of america and it is. Very rural and quite poor with very little commerce. Blueberries and Lobsters are about it. No big stores and not even very many Mom and Pop places left open.
The campground reflects the area. Very simple with what you need but no fancy dancey stuff. Just the basics, no frills. Feels right. Some of the rv parks make you feel your not really where you are. You can go from your big motor homes with tv and huge satellite dishes to the air-conditioned bathrooms/showers and then to the heated pool and hot tub. Local culture, hell we can see that on our tv. Strange to be in Maine and walk by an rv to hear a program on Maine on the discovery channel. Now they go home and say yep we were just in Maine…….At South Bay you feel you’re in Maine. It’s about 80 acres with lots of ocean front and very few people. Good for me, bad for Jack Willson, the owner. Jacks’ busy rebuilding a lobster boat for his son and doesn’t seem to dwell much on the fact that this has been the slowest summer he’s had. See his photo soon in the gallery.
Jack worken on his boat
September 9, 2004 – 8:14 PM
9 September 2004
Omaha, Nebraska
Awhile has passed…… After Lubec Maine I drove through inland Maine and wondered through Vermont. Great state, Vermont. Visited in the town of Cabot, where my first ex-wife lived with the Weatherman in the ’60. The town really has not changed at all. Then headed down to my folks in Ct. and off to Omaha to get some gallery work done. Have been in Omaha over a month- locked away in the darkroom but now see the light and hope to head North and West in the coming week. Plan is off to South Dakota, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Eagle Butte and the Black Hills then down to Colorado to see Jesse and into New Mexico. Will hook up with a film crew from Paris that is going to do a small documentary on the trip somewhere between Rapid City and Denver. Then Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington. Who knows? Sounds like a plan. Been rough being off the road for so long. Good folks and great food here but its time to mosey on down the road. Had the opportunity to make contacts and scan all the work done thus far, so the gallery section has many new images. Also found images that I’d previously missed so if you go back through the pages you’ll find some new work as well. I had time to set up the trailer so I can contact print 4×5 palladium- so be on the lookout for the traveling portfolio. If you’d be interested in seeing the portfolio of original palladium prints made on the trip, edition will be “APOTR” for Artist Proof printed on the road, let me know.
Dan “Your gonna be here how long?”
Dan, Joyce and Henri
Dan and Henri
Dan learning palladium printing
