FIGURATIVE - THE BODY AS LANGUAGE

AUGUST 2 - SEPTEMBER 28, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 5-8PM

ARTIST TALKS: FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 5-8pm Andrew O’brien, Amy wilton + Kevin Callahan

Friday, SEPTEMBER 13, 5-8PM Susan Rosenberg Jones, Jodi Colella, Jan Pieter van Voorst van Beest + Jack Montgomery

In 2024, discussions of personhood and body politics have become central to our cultural conversation. In response, MMPA issued a call for works, receiving submissions from 60 artists worldwide. Our upcoming exhibition delves into crucial aspects of the human experience, addressing themes such as gender identity, sexual preference, race, alternative lifestyles, the erotic, motherhood, love, and longing. The featured work is not only sophisticated but also infused with empathy, dignity, and originality, all while being beautifully crafted. - Denise Froehlich, Director of MMPA

Chelsea Ellis
AMY WILTON
ANDREW O’BRIEN
BRANDON SIMPSON
COLE CASWELL
DAVE HANSON
mathis benestebe
JACK MONTGOMERY
JAN PIETER VAN VOORST VAN BEEST
JASON FREEMAN
JODI COLELLA
JOHN WOODRUFF
LYNN KARLIN
MELONIE BENNETT
NEVILLE CAULFIELD
MONA SARTOVEH
ROBERT TOMLINSON
SUSAN ROSENBERG JONES
THOMAS WHITWORTH
NANCY GRACE HORTON
BARBARA PEACOCK

Neville Caulfield

"Before I depart I rest my body in the place the lighthouse misses, the dark swaths of grass (missed too by the man who mows the lawn every other Wednesday) on the slope of the small hill behind the keeper’s house. This place is made darker still as the eyes adjust unwillingly to the circle of light that sprints along the tops of the black pines that crown the hill, anointing each for just a moment; tonight I pick You. I pick you, and then you and then you, and then you and then you and then you. The only thing I can hear is the quiet squeal of the island’s generator a hundred yards away, the gears working slowly, smallest to largest, pulling a swath of indigo cotton across the sky inch by inch, the stars and their small sounds curled in the dark spaces between the bayberry leaves."

Since childhood I have been aware of enacting a metered version of my sexuality, and thus myself, in order to feel safe, to fit in, to be invisible, to be seen. There are apparitions of identity that surface, often unwillingly, to satisfy these situations, never complete, always lacking complete self-consciousness. My practice of making self-portraits is an attempt to remedy this crisis by creating fixed, intentional, indisputably real images of myself, bared in light and gelatin silver. 

When making pictures I draw on histories that are simultaneously mine and not mine: Masculinity, genealogy, the earth and the church. I dislodge and queer the tradition of large format film photography through dramatized pose, light, and composition to tell a much different but not altogether disconnected history, often a strenuous yet lonely process, something solitary and nearly silent. My sexual expression clings to my heels like a hastily stitched on shadow. God becomes a poltergeist. The parenthesis of my thoughts open and close like gills." -N.C.

Chelsea Ellis

Chelsea Ellis, Fruit, 1/5, 2024, Pigment print, 40 x 30 inches, $3,000

In my photographic work, I use my body and paint to create composite images of humanoid forms that blur the boundaries between the familiar and unfamiliar, investigating structures of the human body and posing the questions: Who are we? What are we?  - C.E.

Chelsea Ellis (b. 1987, Maine) is a photographic artist who lives and works in Rockland, Maine. She earned her BA in Photography from the University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME in 2012. Ellis has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions in Maine, including the House Support Itself exhibition by Lights Out Gallery and Fort Hall in Brunswick (2024), Chelsea Ellis and Todd Watts exhibition at the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts in Portland (2023), Made Not Taken exhibition at the Gascoine Gallery in Monson (2022), and No Time exhibition at Ticonic Gallery in Waterville (2022). Ellis has had her work reviewed in the Portland Press Herald and Artscope Magazine

Susan Rosenberg Jones

Susan Rosenberg Jones, Yoga Practice, 2021, archival digital print, 16 x 20 inches, $800. each

After having been married for 32 years my husband passed away in 2008, after a long illness. Once widowed, I experienced the confusing and mixed feelings of grief: guilt, loneliness, regrets, indelible memories of loving glances, hugs, and laughs. In 2009 I decided to try online dating because I wanted to meet a man for an occasional movie or dinner date.

The second man I met online was Joel, and we felt a bond right away. Soon after, I closed my account on JDate. We married in January of 2012 in a lovely ceremony at home. I hadn’t expected to fall in love, but I did. To my surprise and delight, I found that I could deeply love this wonderful man who entered my life, while holding dear the memories of my first husband.

Having been in a long-term marriage, I came to this new relationship with the tools in place to be a good wife. We quickly fell into the routine and ease of being a stable married couple, except that we were newlyweds in our 60's. There is humor in that. For one thing, our bodies are not supple and streamlined the way they were when we were young. We both come with a lot of baggage, and at our ages, it’s no big deal, nothing to get excited about. We’ve both seen a lot, done a lot, and have higher thresholds for idiosyncratic behavior than in our 20’s and 30’s.

In this series, Second Time Around, I delight in observing my new husband as he goes about living day to day. We both know that life is short, and perhaps because of our new found love and comfort, we can journey through this life with a certain enthusiasm. We feel secure, yet we know we’re lucky. - S.R.J.

Susan Rosenberg Jones is a portrait and documentary photographer based in New York City. Her work explores themes of home, family, community, identity, aging, love, and relationships. Susan was a Critical Mass Top 50 recipient in 2017 for Second Time Around and in 2021 for Widowed. Her work has been exhibited in solo and juried group exhibitions at the Center for Fine Art Photography, Baxter Street at CCNY, the Griffin Museum, Center for Photographic Art, apexart, and Panopticon Gallery, among others. Recent publications include: Lenscratch, Strange Fire Collective, Float Magazine, F-Stop, Memory Orchards, and On Covid. Her first monograph, Second Time Around, was published in December 2023.

Jack Montgomery

Jack Montgomery, Taurean at Morse Mountain Beach, 1/5, 1998/2024, Inkjet print, 24 x 24 inches, $2000.

“Taurean at Morse Mountain Beach, Art and Nature Aligned” is a photograph made during an expedition with the Portland Ballet in the summer of 1998. I was still in my early days of photography, having begun in earnest only about five years previously. It was a magical day. Eight dancers and I hiked to the beach which is located in Phippsburg, Maine. The sky was overcast with a light haze at the horizon — perfect for photography. My camera was a Hasselblad, which I still use. Each and every one of the dancers was completely engaged, dancing at low tide on the empty beach, the only sound being the gentle hiss of the surf and the occasional call of a seagull. In all the years since, I have never experienced a greater sense of shared joy in making photographs than on that day.

This image, and all others from that shoot, were the product of a collaboration with the subjects. I gave them little direction, beyond the admonition to help me make the portrait that they would like to see of themselves. “I am your mirror” has been my instruction for decades. Taurean’s natural grace and outgoing personality made him an ideal subject. We have remained in touch over the ensuing 25 plus years. He lives in New York City where he continues to dance and now pursues a career in arts administration. This photograph speaks volumes to me, but I am content to let the viewer experience the portrait in the context of their own imagination. - J. M.

Jack Montgomery is a photographer based in Freeport, Maine. He has been making images since the early 1990’s. His subjects have ranged widely, included portraits of New York Firefighters after 9/11, Maine’s Holocaust survivors, young people coming of age on the Maine coast, transgender youth, fetishists in New York, judges, villagers in the Dominican Republic, and dancers in Portland, Maine and Sienna, Italy among others. He has also completed several landscape and architectural series, focused primarily on Maine but also including Italy (mainland and Sicily) and Japan. His photographs have been exhibited in Maine, New York City, Italy and France. They are included in the collections of museums and private individuals, and seen on book covers. Jack prints his photographs by a variety of means, including the 19th century processes of kallitype, palladium (“ziatype”), photogravure, gelatin silver and archival dye prints.

Jodi Colella

FIRST SKIN represents my ritual of process and craft in the devotion of art, history, identity, time and place. - J. C.

Feeling defeated and trapped this piece speaks to the oppression of women, the powers that control them, yet she’s still present and hopeful for change. - J.C.

  Mona Sartoveh

They dictated, 'Wear this, not that. Keep your hair short, suppress your laughter. Refrain from biking. Better not pluck your eyebrows. Stay inconspicuous. Be seen for who you are.' This chapter of my childhood opens a window into the realm of womanhood within an ideological society that relentlessly enforces its gendered ideals. It's a society that instills the belief that if you don't conform to its societal standards, there will always be guardians ready to enforce those ideals. Thus, the responsibility falls on the individual to protect oneself. This narrative hinges on two pivotal truths: your body is subject to judgment, and it remains perpetually under scrutiny, with every action monitored.

Years later, as my life's geography underwent a transformation, and I thought I had left behind the shadows of body-related concerns in a new land, an ordinary afternoon in sunny Boston reshaped the story. A green car, reminiscent of the moral security police vehicles in Iran, passed by, prompting an unconscious reflex to shield my head, which I was no longer required to cover with a Hijab. I contemplated this narrative in silence, my mind still haunted by the phantoms of body surveillance, my body having adapted to preying upon itself, miles away from tangible threats. The initial terror instilled by this realization soon evolved into a conscious battle, as I unearthed and mocked these concealed hunters. Now aware of their presence, they could no longer hide within me, like a child playing hide and seek in the most obvious of places.

"Hunter," my new self-portrait series, is indeed a relentless struggle. It represents the journey of a woman who has become more attuned to the predators that society implanted within her and now seeks to expose and ridicule them. Creating this self-portrait project has been a deeply personal journey for me, exploring the profound connection between my identity and the Hijab, a mandatory aspect of my life. Your recognition of the timeliness of the work is truly affirming and means a great deal to me. - M. S.

Mona Sartoveh, born in Tehran in 1982, is a photographer known for her passion for social topics. She holds a B.A. in photography from the Art and Architecture University of Tehran and has established herself as a self-employed photographer with a diverse range of skills, including film photography, art direction, and scriptwriting. She remains steadfast in her passion for photography and continues to create art that inspires and resonates with audiences around the world. Her unique perspective on life, shaped by her experiences, is evident in her captivating images that capture the essence of her artistic vision. Mona's creativity is fueled by her life's journey, which has given her a deep understanding of social issues and a keen eye for detail. She uses photography as a medium for telling stories and making a difference in her world. She is particularly dedicated to showcasing the multifaceted aspects of womanhood and addressing contemporary challenges faced by women in today's world.

Robert Tomlinson

This series, Love Exist, is based on one image of a nude torso with added texts selected from, Alphabet, a book of poems by Inger Christensen.

love exists, love exists
your hand a baby bird so obviously tucked into mine

the leaves whisper, almost drowning the sky with silence

think like a bird building nests, think like a cloud

detail exists, memory, memory’s light; afterglow exist;

doves exist, dreamer, and dolls killers exist, and doves, and doves

early fall exists; aftertaste, afterthoughts; seclusion and angels exist;

errors exist, instrumental, systemic random; remote control exist, and birds;

branches exist, wind lifting them exists,
and the love drawing made by the branches

and gardens exist, horticulture, the elder trees’ pale flowers, still as a seething hymn

whispering exist, whispering exist, the cells oldest, fondest collusion

doves exist, dreamer, and dolls killers exist, and doves, and doves

I am a visual artist working in photography, drawing and painting — often combining all three elements into finished works. The images in this submission were created in October, 2023, in the Todd Watts darkroom in Blanchard, ME., while on a month long residency with the Monson Arts Residency program. All are ink on unique silver gelatin prints, 19” x 15” each. I usually alter the image as it is being projected onto the paper before being developed
- R. T.

Robert Tomlinson has served as executive director and curator for The San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, Gallery One Visual Arts Center and the Oregon Arts Alliance. He has curated and installed over 100 exhibitions and created a gallery for the developmentally disabled. A working artist, Tomlinson has conducted his own studio practice for over 40 years. In 2011 he co-founded 13 Hats, a group of artist and writers that collaborated for two years on a wide range of creative projects and exhibitions. His work has been featured in 35 solo shows and over 50 group exhibitions. Tomlinson has been awarded several artist’s residencies, most recently in 2023 at Monson Arts in Monson, Maine.

Prior to moving to New York in 2017, Tomlinson served on the board for the newly formed, Ash Creek Arts Center in Oregon, which he helped to start. Tomlinson was co-founder & co-editor for the arts & literary quarterly journal, Picture Sentence. He was the “Artist Vision” curator for the Lake Oswego Arts Festival in 2015 and 2016. Tomlinson has hosted two monthly radio shows: Purple House: A Monthly Forum for the Arts, on WGXC and Remarkable People for WIOX. He was also the co-founder & host of the monthly poetry reading at 394 Main St. in Catskill. Until recently, Tomlinson was the director/ curator at the Kaaterskill Gallery for the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY. Currently, in addition to his full-time studio practice, he is the co-founder and president of the board for the Glove Cities Arts Alliance in Gloversville, NY.

Melonie Bennett

These photographs are part of an ongoing visual diary of my family and friends and the times we share with each other. Photography helps me process family dynamics and I tend to learn more about them as well. There is always a silver lining. I stopped by the farm to visit my mom and my nephew, Wyatt, happened to be there applying a mud mask - Not expected behavior from a 15 year old. This is what I thrive on. Watching him throughout this process was fun and the time waiting for the mask to dry led to his investigating his physique. - M. B.

Melonie Bennett is a Maine born photographer who has watched her family and friends through the lens of her camera for over 15 years. “My photography is an ongoing visual diary of my family and friends and the times we share together,” she writes in an artist’s statement. “I developed my point of view growing up on a diary farm in Gorham, Maine.” The humor in her work, along with the deep affection she feels for her subjects, sets Bennett’s candid, black and white photographs apart from those of her documentation peers. These images are intimate invitations into the daily lives of one big boisterous rural Maine family. Bennett, who emerged on the Maine art scene in the mid 1990s, has exhibited throughout the state, in galleries in New York City, and around the Northeast.

John Woodruff

The US series are surreal anatomicals that reference the human condition. The X-rays of various body parts are set against hot backgrounds that push the subject forward in space. All images are created using the iPhone. - J.W.

Throughout his career, John Woodruff continued to focus on lens-based art showing frequently in the Hartford, New Haven, Western MA, and NYC areas. His science and art background generally push him towards images that reflect the two and his photographs tend to be constructed rather than photographing the “moment.” John frequently works on two series at a time since “moving from one line of thought to the other helps give me a break from one or the other and frees up my mind a bit to keep either fresh. I also find myself reinventing a lot of what I do by recycling past and present images.”John typically likes to work with paper, organic shapes, disparate images, and the illusion of depth. His visually charged images tend to linger at the intersection of painting and photography, imagery and abstraction.

jan pieter van voorst van beest

Choosing work for an exhibit based on the human figure.  I already had a set of photographs chosen and arranged. Then Denise came in for a studio visit, looked around and pointed at four photos leaning against the wall. The first one was a street shot I took years ago in Costa Rica. It depicted a statue while a man in the background was going about his business in a way unrelated to the statue. I had sold the photograph years ago, but through a strange set of circumstances it returned back into my possession. Then there were two photographs of statue details, one of a woman holding a baby, the other of a detail of a statue. The last two photographs had been shown together, years ago in a solo exhibit where I compared the tonal values and poses of the nude with the tonal values and poses of marble nudes. The name of the exhibit, which was in the Netherlands, was “Flesh and Stone”.

Mostly my work deals with portraiture, street photography and a deep interest in observing the human spirit. The “Flesh & Stone” photographs would have fallen into the “Portrait” category. The Costa Rican piece was a street shot and the “Bris” photo was a street photography style portrait taken during a religious ritual.

The photographs were taken during a 25 year time span. What filled me with satisfaction is that a curator came in, saw them, and discovered a narrative between these seemingly unrelated photographs. That may be an indicator that, after a lifetime in photography I may have developed a style that is not based on technique, something that we see more and more of in this digital age, but a style that has been developed through the experience of learning how to see. (The photographer’s eye!) - J.P. v V. v B.

Dave Hanson

My photographs are elements of my ongoing visual autobiographical journey. They are the outcomes of the variations of my thoughts and the evidence of my presence in the places that I have been, the things I have seen and of the people I have experienced. They tell of brief moments in my life that I have been paused in my steps and have awaken from life’s visual slumber. - D. H.

I'm an artist with a life long passion for the medium of photography. I'm from Eastern Utah in the United States and for over three decades my art has encapsulated an eclectic range of subject matter. I've been intrigued and inspired by everything from the uniqueness of the human face and body, to the historic footprints left by man on the land and of the beauty of landscapes throughout the United States and the world. My photographs represent the outcome of my vision as translated through the passion of my soul. I incorporate digital, film and multiple historic alternative photographic processes to help capture and create unique images that represent the collaboration between myself, my camera and the subject. - D. H.

Jason Freeman

My work as a self-portrait photographer is a deeply personal exploration of identity, vulnerability, and self-discovery. Through my images, I strive to peel back the layers of who I am and lay bare my innermost thoughts and sentiments. This work deconstructs and challenges traditional stereotypes of masculinity that society imposes. By drawing inspiration from these very paradigms, I create art that tests these norms with a more nuanced understanding of masculinity. This approach allows me to test and disrupt these definitions while exploring my own thoughts on masculinity. - J. F.

Jason Freeman is a fine art self-portrait photographer known for his intimate and introspective work influenced by his surroundings. Through the medium of self-portraiture, he explores the depths of his own emotions, vulnerabilities and dreams, inviting viewers to join him on this journey of self-curiosity. He continues to create evocative and thought-provoking self-portraits that explore the complexities of his human experience.

Lynn Karlin

Noble contours, elegance, and mystery are features I look for when choosing a face for Still Lives: Stories in Profile. Each portrait has a timeless quality and could be from any era. I document the seldom seen side view and seek to capture the moment when a personality and a story emerge in its simplest form. Rarely do we look at others or ourselves in profile. - L. K.

Lynn Karlin is an internationally published photographer originally from New York City, now living in Belfast, Maine. A graduate of Pratt Institute, she was the first woman staff photographer for the trendy fashion journal Women’s Wear Daily and W. Her on-going profile portrait series, which she began in 2017 won a Maine Arts Commission Project Grant, was featured in FotoNostrum magazine, and won awards with Lens Culture, Julia Margaret Cameron and the Prix de la Photographie.

Andrew OBrien

In this current series entitled “My American Friend” I am exploring the residual elements of portrait images in which the subject and all identifying elements have been abstracted or removed. My work explores the interplay of color and form, seeking to reveal those lingering and defining artifacts of an individual that persist in the absence of identifiable subject matter. My aim is to invite viewers to engage with the unnoticed and to find meaning in the remnants. - Andrew O’Brien

Andrew O’Brien is a Maine based artist specializing in lens-based arts and photography. His work primarily delves into abstraction and coloration, often challenging conventional perspectives and revealing what is seen beyond its apparent subject matter.

Mathis Benestebe

Erinlé is an autobiographical story exploring the difficulty of finding one’s own identity without models. The first chapter focuses on the absence of representation and the impossibility of projecting oneself into any kind of figure. This leads to an urgent need to discover the faces of those with similar paths. The second chapter introduces the infinite possibilities of personal stories and experiences that have gender transition in common. Each person represents a new model of fulfillment, and a new, unexpected encounter.However the emergence of red announces the first signs of the violence provoked by these new social identities. In the Yoruba religious traditions of West Africa, Erinlé is a deity, master of fishing, warrior and hunter. Androgynous in appearance, his worship originated with the Ilobu people of present-day Nigeria, and was found in the cities of the ancient Oyo Empire. - M. B.

Mathis Benestebe is a 21-year-old photographer. Born in Saint-Nazaire (France), he lives in Toulouse and graduated from the ETPA photography school in 2023. His work revolves around intimacy, autobiography and lack. His work was exhibited in Paris at the Circulation(s) festival in 2023, he’s laureate of the third edition of the Utopi-e prize.

Thomas Whitworth

These images are from the Constructed Realities portfolio that presents fifty photographic diptychs created from anonymous nude male and female portraits purchased off of ebay. The portraits were scanned and digitally aligned alongside setup still lifes, snapshots, and real world views. The combined images present possible narratives and histories for the previously unrelated photographs and serve as modern examples of the suggestive power of the Kuleshov Effect, a photographic phenomena of interpretation discovered in 1918 by Soviet cinema pioneer Lev Kuleshov.

Thomas Whitworth is an artist and educator holding a MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a MA from California State University at Fullerton, CA and a BFA from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fl. He has exhibited nationally and internationally for over 40 years. - T.W.

Amy Wilton

This body of work was literally born from my womb in the year 2000, a visual chronicle of the life of my two children, Emma and Nigel, and their friends.  I am capturing transitions; flash moments of life’s absurd, uncanny relentlessness.  In each image, I find my best and worst traits reflected back at me through their attitude and gestures.  I invite viewers to jump into the cacophony, as they create their own narratives around each photograph.  - A. W.

Currently living in Portland, ME, Amy Wilton is a fine art and commercial photographer.  After moving to Camden in 1997, she received her MFA in Photography from Maine Media College.  Her photographs have been exhibited most recently FotoNostrum gallery in Barcelona.

Cole Caswell

Cole Caswell, Gang Plate 48, 2024, Pigment print, 20 x 25, $1,300

Cole Caswell, Portraits from the Peripheral Subsistence portfolio, 2013-2024, Tintypes, 8 x 10 inches, $900. each

Peripheral Subsistence is one aspect of a nomadic photographic trek across the United States. The images made for the project use the historic wet plate collodion process to explore the entangled survival tactics of people living or subsisting on the fringes of today’s world. What sort of edge is described when living takes on these conditions? The travels that make up this exploration are referred to as the Unknown Expedition, a research driven trek into the peripheral American landscape. The meandering course is determined based on research interests and an ever-growing network of people and places. The coalescing focus of the expedition investigates contemporary forms of subsistence living. The expedition is open ended at this point in time. In its entirety it could be seen as a performance, a moving installation, a research kit, or a studio. In parts the project is a photographic catalyst, a collection of stories, an archive of relics, a meal, and a set of questions propelling one to search out new perspectives and options.

Cole Caswell researches the remnants and patterns in our landscape that reflect contemporary strategies of survival. Through strata of observation, technology, subjectivity, and his surroundings, Caswell investigates geography and its impact on our perceived ability to survive. He uses traditional, historic and digital photographic media to investigate our present condition. For most of the year Cole is working and living in a nomadic format traveling throughout the county exploring our ability to subsist within the contemporary environment. Caswell travels in an 80’s VW camper van with a portable darkroom mounted to the back and uses alternative photographic process to create works while in the field. When the warmer weather returns to Maine he migrates towards his studio on Peaks Island off the coast of Portland. In 2009 Caswell started offering Tintype portrait commission to the public under the project name AGNO3lab which is still actively being invited to various venues from wild hog BBQs in the everglades of Florida to the Colby Art Museum in Maine. Constantly working on many types of projects Cole has collaborated with the arts collective Spurse, The Nation Park System, and The Kohler Center for The Arts. He currently holds adjunct faculty positions at Southern Maine Community College, and Prescott College in Arizona – where he develops and teaches photography courses remotely. In addition to these teachings Cole has lectured at the Maine Media Workshops, Kohler Arts Center, Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University and the Bakery Photo Collective.

Brandon Simpson

Brandon Simpson, Dreamscape, 1 - 9, 2022, Polaroid film, 4.25 x 3.5 inches, $50. each

In my photographic exploration, I aim to encapsulate the profound connection I share with the natural beauty of Maine. This exhibition is a testament to the intimate moments of solitude within nature that evoke a sense of peace and renewal. Through the lens of vintage Polaroid cameras, I seek to convey the transformative power of these experiences, where energy is replenished, and fresh perspectives emerge. In the hustle of life, I find solace in the woods, and it's in those quiet walks where equilibrium is restored to both body and mind. This collection is a visual narrative of my love for Maine's landscapes and the transcendent moments that nature graciously offers, inviting viewers to share in the serenity and beauty that I find in the heart of the wilderness. - B.S.

Brandon Simpson, a coastal Maine native and Biddeford local, navigates the intricate tapestry of land and seascapes through the lens of vintage Polaroid cameras. Even with earning a degree in psychology, his true calling lies in capturing the innate beauty of his surroundings. Having spent most of his life as a chef, Brandon recently pivoted to pursue photography professionally, finding solace and inspiration in nature's embrace. Each click of his Polaroid becomes a meditative journey, anchoring him in the present, as he cherishes the precise moment captured in every image, a testament to the authenticity of his connection with the Maine landscape.