Category Editorial

Photographing AI leader Amanda Stent at Colby

January 16, 2024 0 Comments read Assignments, Blog, Client Work, Editorial, Education, Mainers, On Assignment, On Location, Showcase

Female Scientist — *Amanda Stent, inaugural Director of the Colby College Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence. ©Brian Fitzgerald*

I’m excited to share one of the assignments I did for Colby College recently. This was to photograph Amanda Stent, the inaugural Director of the Davis Institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby—the first such cross-disciplinary institute at a liberal arts college.

Professor and student discussion — ©Brian Fitzgerald

Stent, a renowned expert in Natural Language Processing (NLP), transitioned from her role as NLP architect at Bloomberg L.P., where she led their AI team. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and is co-inventor on more than 30 patents in NLP. In short, Stent is a big deal in the world of AI, and her leadership of the Davis Institute will allow Colby to fulfill its goal of integrating AI and machine learning into a liberal arts framework.

Luckily, the Colby Campus provided a number of interesting environments for portraits and for interactions with students. It was important to try to give a sense of the academic environment as well as the innovative work being done there at Colby.

Dylan Metrano: Crafting Tiny Marvels in a Cozy Space

December 6, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creating Spaces, Creativity, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Assignment

Dylan Metrano perches atop an adjustable office chair that—along with his drafting table—dominates his top-floor home studio. Glow-in-the-dark stars cling to the ceiling, remnants of a bygone nursery. A bookcase and artwork adorn the walls of its 8×10-foot interior.

“I’m in the space that I need, because I don’t work particularly big. My cutting mat is only 12′ x 12′ so I don’t really go much bigger than that,” says Metrano, a paper cutting artist based in Bath, Maine. “I wish I had more wall space to hang more art up in, but in general I’ve got everything I need in here, he says. “I can’t imagine working without it.”

In this cramped space, Metrano meticulously crafts paper designs, melding shapes and colors for cards, logos, T-shirts, posters, album covers, calendars and more. “My tools for paper cutting are basically an X-Acto knife, a glue stick and a ruler,” he explains. His sole extravagance, the rolling chair, came from an advance for illustrating a children’s book years ago. “I have to have a nice surface and a nice seat,” he explains.

Bending over his table, knife in hand, Metrano swiftly carves a black piece of paper with a stenciled design. The paper measures perhaps six inches square. It’s an animal—a bird.

“Birds are definitely one of my favorites. There’s so many varieties and they’re so colorful and interesting. The feathers are really fun to create,” he says.

Metrano grew up in Massachusetts but frequented the coast of Maine as a child. He later worked on Monhegan Island, where he met his future wife, Mandy. They eventually married, settling down and starting a chocolate-making business called La Nef Chocolate. Throughout it all, Metrano continued crafting paper art, even when lacking a dedicated space. “When I first moved to Monhegan (Island) I was doing paper cutting in the cafe there, but it’s distracting with people coming and going.”

Metrano pauses, glancing up at his MacBook. The screen reveals a reference image of the subject that is gradually taking shape, cut by cut, on his board. It’s a Killdeer, a small shorebird. Metrano adds bits of colored paper—red for the eyes, brown for the head and feathers, white for the breast. Almost done.

Birds are easier to create with than people, Metrano observes. “You don’t have to be so specific with birds or animals because they’re not recognizable as an individual. If I try to do a Prince portrait and the nose is not quite right, it’s not going to look like him. That’s where it gets more difficult. Those are harder to do ultimately, but they’re really gratifying when they come out well,” he says.

When creating purely for personal enjoyment, Metrano—a lifelong musician as well as an artist–prefers to create musician portraits. “That’s what I do just for myself,” he remarks, displaying a few past creations: Deep Purple. Prince, of course. The Beatles, and others—both famous and obscure.

Beatles Portraits — *© Brian Fitzgerald*

Despite its limited size, Metrano’s studio is a sanctuary. When he enters, he disengages from the world outside. “It’s more like switching off,” Metrano chuckles. “It’s a meditative exercise for me. Once I’ve got my pencil marks down on paper and I start cutting, I don’t really think about it. A couple of hours goes by and I’ve got a piece done.”

With the Killdeer finished, intricate cuts highlighting texture and color, Metrano rises from the table. His workspace is illuminated by a solitary desk lamp in the now-darkened room. It’s late, and his work is done.

“I do it because I enjoy it. If I ever find that I’m not enjoying it, I just won’t do it,” Metrano says, glancing around his close confines. “I’ll just go make more chocolates.”

–30–

Creating Spaces is a project that explores the connection between Maine artists and craftsmen and their physical workspaces-—places that are often hallowed grounds of creativity and solitude, far from the public eye or the gallery.

Neon Dave: Shining Bright in Portland’s East Bayside

November 14, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creating Spaces, Creativity, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Location

Dave Johansen, known as Neon Dave, pauses and surveys his workspace in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood. Filled with piles of cut glass tubes, a various boxes and hand-drawn designs on paper, the cluttered area is one of three he utilizes in a shared space. “As a self-employed single person, it’s nice to have other people around sometimes,” he says. “Other times, it’s nice to rock out by yourself and get a lot of work done. But having people around makes everything more fun.”

Neon Dave has been a neon artist since 2003. “I was already doing art and painting and was using a lot of reflective, fluorescent colors and metallics,” Johansen explains. “I started thinking about incorporating light into the art, then researched neon, and I just decided to do it.”

He clarifies that while ‘neon’ traditionally refered to the use of neon gas–which produces a distinctive orange light–the name has come to encompass the use of various gasses and chemicals that produce a variety of colors used in glass tube signage and artwork.

Johansen’s studio is divided into sections: administration, assembly and paint, storage, and a glass flash shop, where tubes are heated, shaped, filled with gas, and bombarded with electrons.

Dave likes his studio’s location, amidst other art studios in a now-trendy neighborhood peppered with breweries and coffee shops. “It’s been interesting to have a front-row seat to a changing neighborhood as one of the first wave of artists,” he reflects. “The character has certainly changed. But I like being close to the action. For my local clients, if something goes wrong, like a transformer failure, I can respond quickly without spending the whole day.”

Gael McKeon: Inspired and Unbound

October 11, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creative, Creativity, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Location

“As a young (bass) luthier, I thought I was going to make all of these innovative changes. You see people doing it all the time: they change (instruments) sporadically. It doesn’t work. If you’re going to make it different, (the instrument) still has to work,” says Gael McKeon.

McKeon, originally from New York City, has been a double bass luthier since 1998. He’s since worked and studied in New York, North Carolina, San Francisco, and Toulouse, France, before moving to Maine. In his workshop on the third floor of the State Theater building on Congress Street, McKeon repairs and restores traditional instruments while designing his own.

“Humidity and temperature control is essential. I’m ruined without that,” says McKeon of his tidy but cramped space, one wall dominated by views of Congress Street below. McKeon describes his shop as the ‘second best’ space he’s ever had. “I’m here mostly because of the windows,” he says. “It’s just big enough so that I can manage the amount of repairs that I can handle. If I had less space, I would have to tell people to hold on to their instruments while I finished other things. Here, I can juggle a little bit, and I can have adequate machinery.”

McKeon also builds his own instruments. He describes his approach as conventional, using traditional proportions, but with his own departures of design inspired by classic and modern forms. One bass on display in his shop sat broken for 12 years before he restored it with a paper fingerboard and a custom scroll that he first sketched in 1998. “I’ve added some innovations,” says McKeon, “but there are technical reasons for its aesthetics.”

In the Room Where It Happens

September 5, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creativity, Editorial, Mainers, Marketing, Photographers

Boxing Coach — *Coach Bob Russo, Portland Boxing Club. © Brian Fitzgerald*

During my years as a newspaper photo editor, I often invited myself into any meetings I saw that included an editor and writers. Leaning into the doorway I’d ask, “Should I be in here?” Early involvement in story development leads to better visual opportunities, benefitting the story and ultimately, readers.

Images wield unique emotional power. This seems intuitive, and research backs it up. Words are potent, but images go straight for the gut. For evidence of the power of prose, pick up Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. But pair that visceral sort of writing with images that connect, and the impact multiplies.

Engaging in the storytelling process fires me up. There are tactical mountains to climb: the right questions to ask that dig deep into the marrow of the narrative bones of a story.

But you’ve got to be in the room. You’ve got to have a chair and be part of the planning. Even before the story takes shape. Before you know where the story will take you.

–30–

From Cartoons to Glass: A Creative Maine Journey

August 22, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creativity, Editorial, Inspirational, Mainers, Mainers at Work, Portraits, Storytelling

Maine Glassblower David Jacobson — David Jacobson, Glassblower, Belfast, Maine. © Brian Fitzgerald

David Jacobson was a freshman majoring in telecommunications at Kent State University in Ohio when he happened upon an outdoor glassblowing demonstration. “I knew at that moment that was something I needed to do,” he said.

It took a few years—and a few colleges—but Jacobson did end up studying for an MFA in glassblowing. He also became a professional editorial cartoonist for a Gannett newspaper in New York, where he is from, spending his career cartooning for various publications and with a full-time syndicated cartoon with United Media. Still, he found himself taking more glassblowing classes on the side. “Things were going well there. Yet it turned out that my cartooning supported my glass habit,” said Jacobson.

By 2003, Jacobson’s glass art was selling in galleries. He relocated to Montville, Maine that same year and did what Mainers do: cobbled together an income, by running a glass studio and a house-painting business.

He rebuilt his 200-year-old barn into a glass studio. “There was a lot of hard work, a lot of doubt, and a lot of moments thinking, ‘I’m the biggest idiot in the world.’ But the passion was always there and fortunately, the talent was always there too. I just kept meeting the right people and kept saying yes.”

Saying yes is what led Jacobson to co-found a studio with artist Carmi Katsir as part of the Waterfall Arts in Belfast. They built out the studio using much of Jacobson’s equipment from his old studio, adapting it to run off of vegetable oil and electricity—one of just a handful in the US. Now, Jacobson produces his own work and, together with Katsir and others, teaches hot glass classes to the public and to Belfast high school students.

David Jacobson, Glassblower, Belfast, Maine. © Brian Fitzgerald

Of the studio, owned by Waterfall Arts, Jacobson says that he’s grateful. “It allows me to do work that makes me the happiest I’ve ever been.”

As a creative business owner, Jacobson was used to being a lone wolf but is excited by the community aspect of the Waterfall Arts Glassworks. “One of the greatest assets of glassblowing is that it is community-oriented. People are trained to work with someone. So to come into this community situation is thrilling. It’s affected my work in that it’s given me great enthusiasm to try new things,” Jacobson said.

“It’s beyond any kind of vision that I ever had.”

David Jacobson, Belfast, Maine ©Brian Fitzgerald

–30–

Find out more about the Waterfall Arts Glassworks or to sign up for a class at the only public-access glassblowing studio in Maine.

Creating Spaces is a project that explores the connection between Maine artists and craftsmen and their physical workspaces—places that are often hallowed grounds of creativity and solitude, far from the public eye or the gallery.

Triumph Over Trauma: Isaac’s Journey

June 21, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Editorial, Inspirational, Personal, Portraits, Projects, Storytelling

Male Cancer Survivor — *Isaac, testicular cancer survivor. © Brian Fitzgerald*

A recurring theme in my work has been narrating the stories of those who battle adversity, survive and even thrive despite the trauma or disease they’ve encountered. This piece is part of an ongoing series featuring men who bear the physical scars of their trauma.

Isaac, a native of Auburn, Maine, recalls experiencing a persistent dull ache in his lower abdomen during his teenage years and early twenties. As he attempted, yet failed, to complete a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail at 20, the discomfort continued. But he kept his pain hidden. “In my childhood, if you weren’t seen, you weren’t getting beaten,” he said. “So you never voiced any concerns.”

At 22, Isaac received a diagnosis of testicular cancer, a disease often affecting younger and middle-aged men. The prospects for recovery can be favorable if the cancer is detected early.

The following years were a blur of chemotherapy sessions, numerous surgeries, including a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection in Boston requiring an incision along his entire abdomen. His weight plummeted from 180 to 110 pounds, his body branded with two feet of surgical scars. Faced with an uncertain future, the 23-year-old grappled with the harsh reality of potential permanent disability.

But for Isaac, resigning to such a fate wasn’t an option. “I could have been milking the system like some people, but what kind of life is that? There are people who legitimately can’t care for themselves, but I’m too stubborn,” he said. Instead he returned to school to became a certified nursing assistant, a role he maintained for the next eight years.

A decade after his initial attempt, Isaac made his way back to the Appalachian Trail. This time, he embarked on his journey from Maine, and after eight months of backtracking, pausing, and restarting, he finally completed the hike.

“Things have happened to me that I didn’t choose,” he reflected, “but I tried to find my own way.”

Dirty Jobs, Good Pay: Photographing Blue Collar Workers

May 30, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Editorial, Industrial, On Assignment, On Location

It’s hard to miss the rising star of blue-collar work in this world reshaped by a pandemic and advancements in artificial intelligence (A.I.). Anyone struggling to hire a plumber, a carpenter or other tradesman since 2020 has seen the effects of this first-hand. Previously overlooked as somehow ‘less than’ white-collar jobs, blue-collar work has become a beacon of resilience and growth, sustaining the economy amidst major layoffs in the tech industry, as reported by Business Insider.

The reason for this is clear: blue-collar roles, which are often hands-on, technical, and require plenty of problem-solving skills, resist replacement by automation or outsourcing. They are firmly rooted in the physical world, characterized by their tangibility and practicality.

This sense of authenticity and grit is what continually draws me to photograph people who work with their hands. There’s a strong sense of narrative within these images, both of resilience and tenacity. I am inspired by their skill, focus, and commitment to doing the job right.

My goal is not merely to capture an image, but to pay tribute to the meticulous nature of blue collar work and its practical impact on our daily lives. Whether it’s the skilled hands of a carpenter shaping a piece of furniture, or the attentive gaze of a mechanic resurrecting an old car, each image tells a story of profound usefulness and necessity.

In our post-pandemic world, tradespeople are more than just workers. They are keepers of a time-honored tradition of skilled American labor. Their work stands as a testament to our collective ability to adapt, persevere, and endure.

Automotive Technicians — *© Brian Fitzgerald*

Industrial Worker — *© Brian Fitzgerald*

Five Tips For Better Outdoor Portraits

May 23, 2023 0 Comments read Assignments, Blog, Editorial, On Location, Portraits, Storytelling, Tips

Outdoor environmental portraits offer a blend of human emotion and natural beauty and can elevate a simple portrait into a compelling visual story. Whether you’re a pro photographer looking to refine your craft—or you’re in a position to hire one—understanding the dynamics of outdoor portrait photography is key. Here are five things I try to keep in mind:

1. Don’t Fight the Sun (Unless You Know You Can Win)

There’s no way around it: photographing outside in full sun is a big challenge, especially for natural-light photographers. Harsh direct sunlight can cause unflattering shadows, squinting, and overexposure. A classic solution is shooting during the ‘golden hour’ – the time just after sunrise or just before sunset when the light is softer and warmer, which can help to create a magical mood.

Choosing the time of day isn’t always an option, so if you’re planning on doing battle under the blazing noon sun, you’ll have to bring plenty of backup in the form of off-camera flash and reflectors. For example, you might position your subject with their back to the sun, using it as a hair light, and fill in their face with a reflector or flash. You’ll need a firm grasp on balancing ambient and artificial light, but if done correctly, you can create dramatic portraits with impact.

2. Show The Environment

The outdoors provides background options that can complement your subject and tell a deeper story. Storytelling details might also help tell the story of your subject.

Watch out for distracting elements in the frame that may draw attention away from your subject. Use depth of field to your advantage, blurring out the background to keep focus on your subject when necessary.

3. Use Motivated Lighting

Just like in filmmaking, motivated lighting plays a crucial role in photography. The concept refers to lighting that appears to come from a natural source within the scene, like the sun, a lamp, or a fire. This kind of lighting not only looks more natural, but it also helps to tell a story and create a certain mood or atmosphere.

4. Create Rapport

Creating a genuine connection with your subject is vital in any kind of portrait photography, but it’s even more crucial outdoors where there are more variables at play. It’s easy to get caught up in your gear, or dealing with changing light and variables like wind, and to forget about connecting with your subject. Good rapport can help your subject feel comfortable and relaxed, leading to more authentic expressions and poses.

5. Mix It Up

Finally, add variety to your outdoor portraits by mixing up poses, locations, angles, and focal lengths. You might start with wide, non-portrait lens and then work up to a tight headshot with a portrait-length lens. Have your subject look away from the camera as well as towards it. You’re not just after a well-composed portrait; you’re looking to create a mood.

The key to a successful outdoor portrait shoot is adaptability. The natural environment is ever-changing, and so should your approach. The sun might not always cooperate, and your environment will present unexpected challenges or distractions. But with these five tips in mind you’ll be better prepared to capture stunning outdoor portraits that truly tell a story.

Capturing Reality with Scientist and Innovator Sarah Martinez Roth

May 2, 2023 0 Comments read Client Work, Editorial, Mainers at Work, Portraits, Storytelling

*Sarah Martinez Roth, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, MA ©Brian Fitzgerald*

A few months ago, Colby College commissioned me to photograph one of their distinguished alumni, Sarah Martinez Roth. A 2011 Biology graduate, Martinez Roth went on to earn her master’s degree and Ph.D. in tumor biology at Georgetown University.

As a senior scientist at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Martinez Roth develops treatments for sickle cell disease and has received the Ainslie Alumni Achievement Award from the Posse Foundation for her work.

My challenge was to capture Martinez Roth immersed in her work within a bustling laboratory. I aimed to reveal that even when working at the forefront of technology, being a scientist still involves hands-on tasks in small labs filled with well-used equipment. I appreciate that the labs she works in are clearly spaces where work happens – far from the pristine, symmetrically gleaming, and unrealistic labs depicted in TV and film. My goal was to integrate as much of that authenticity as possible into her environmental portraits.

Scientist Sarah Martinez Roth — *Sarah Martinez Roth, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, MA ©Brian Fitzgerald*