Maine
Page 1
My first trip to northern Maine was in 1973, to visit with Berenice
Abbott. I had purchased a photograph and thought it might be fun to
pick it up in person. During the visit I saw an Atget reprint I wanted.
It was for sale, but had to be spotted. While Berenice was spotting the
picture, I asked if I could take a snapshot with an SX-70 camera, a
camera she regarded as little more than a toy. The next day, as I was
getting ready to return to New York City, she told me that if I ever
got a real camera, she’d teach me how to use it.
I purchased an 8”x10” Deardorff, and the following
summer went back to
Maine and began taking photographs. Sometimes Berenice came along, but
mostly she didn’t. I used the large format camera in Maine until about
1980, but rarely after that, except for Berenice’s annual birthday
party on July 17th, when I’d take a picture of everyone who’d made the
trip to Maine. Most of the black and white photographs from 1980 to
1998 were taken with smaller format cameras.
Berenice lived near Moosehead Lake, a beautiful, but
poor part of the
state. Because things were rough, I often looked for things that were
colorful and cheerful, to compensate for the hard times I saw around
me. Most of my photographs from Maine, perhaps as many as 75 percent,
are in color, and will be displayed separately.
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