Category Mainers at Work

A Year of Portraits with Maine’s Wildlife Commissioner

October 23, 2024 0 Comments read architecture, Blog, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work

Over the past year, I photographed Commissioner Judy Camuso of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW) as she experienced Maine’s natural landscapes through different seasons. These portraits reflect her deep connection to the outdoors and her commitment to conserving the places she loves.

Since being appointed by Governor Janet Mills in 2019, Judy’s leadership has gained national attention. Now serving as President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, she represents conservation efforts across North America, focusing on wildlife policy, funding, and collaboration between agencies.

Judy’s roots as a wildlife biologist run deep. From her early days at Maine Audubon to becoming the first Maine commissioner on the North American Wetlands Conservation Act council, her career is built on a passion for protecting nature. Whether she’s in the field or at the table with policymakers, her connection with and dedication to Maine’s wildlife is clear.

Being able to capture these images of Judy in her element—hot, freezing cold and in-between—was such a pleasure. I love environmental portraits like these because the locations themselves tell such an important story about the subject. As such, it’s important to take the time to find the right spots well

before shoot day, and then be prepared with options in case of last minute schedule changes, late-season snowstorms and other unplanned events. My hope is that these portraits capture just a bit of Judy’s love of the outdoors and her deep sense of responsibility for Maine’s wilderness.

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Weaving Art and Function at Heide Martin Studio

June 12, 2024 0 Comments read Assignments, Creating Spaces, Creative, Creativity, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Assignment, On Location, Video

As part of my ongoing Creating Spaces series featuring Maine artists in their working environments, I had the opportunity to work last fall with Heide Martin and her husband, co-founder Patrick Coughlin. The couple operate Rockland, Maine-based Heide Martin Design Studio, creating unique and functional furniture and housewares.

I was drawn to the studio because of the strong sense of style that permeates their work. Working with natural, simple materials available here in Maine, the two produce exquisite pieces of art that happens to double as functional furniture.

In particular, I love how Heide incorporates the art of weaving into many of her pieces, drawing for inspiration from an out-of-print book on traditional weaving patterns, among other sources.

I’m happy to be able to show the video we produced that day, along with a few stills from my visit with Heide and Patrick in their spacious and well-ordered studio.

*Heide Martin and Patrick Coughlin at the Martin Design Studio. © Brian Fitzgerald*

On the Campaign Trail with Senator Angus King

June 6, 2024 0 Comments read Assignments, Blog, Client Work, Editorial, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Assignment

Maine Senator Angus King

It’s election year, which last month led to the opportunity to photograph Independent Maine Senator Angus King for his reelection campaign.

I’m used to hauling gear to handle any lighting situation. This time, though, I was just carrying a couple of cameras and a small off-camera flash. It felt like being a newspaper photojournalist again.

King, an avid photographer himself, wanted candid shots. No assistants, no extra gear. Just natural moments as he met with constituents in Brunswick and Skowhegan. The mission was to travel fast and light, capturing real life as he made multiple stops along the way.

At one point, King left for an emergency dental appointment—reappearing 45 minutes later, ready to go. Soon he was throwing a football with Bowdoin College students at a local park (King was a high school football quarterback). In my book, toughness is scheduling a dental appointment and a photo shoot on the same day.

Eight hours and five locations later, King was still going strong at an event in Skowhegan. It was fun and an honor to spend the day with him and his campaign.

Maine Senator Angus King — © Brian Fitzgerald

Behind the scenes at Sappi’s Somerset Mill

April 23, 2024 0 Comments read Assignments, Blog, Client Work, Industrial, Mainers at Work, On Location, Showcase

*Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, ME for Sappi Global. © Brian Fitzgerald*

Last fall, I collaborated with the marketing team at Sappi North America on Project Elevate—a $418 million upgrade at Maine’s Somerset Mill. They’re overhauling Paper Machine No. 2, expanding its capabilities, all while the mill’s day-to-day operations churn on. Having struggled myself to simultaneously construct my child’s Ikea desk and binge watch TV, I couldn’t help but be deeply impressed by this achievement.

My task was to capture elements of this

massive project over the course of one day. This involved shadowing Sappi N.A.’s president and CEO, Michael Haws, as he toured the bustling construction site. I created environmental portraits of Haws and his team, and photographed him with Sappi workers.

I love creating images in industrial environments like these–while challenging, the opportunities for amazing and dramatic visuals are worth the effort.

Paper Mill — *Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, ME for Sappi Global. © Brian Fitzgerald*

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.”

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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.”

A Space Called Home: Joe Rosshirt

October 25, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creating Spaces, Creative, Creativity, Mainers, Mainers at Work, Projects, Storytelling

Artist in his studio — *Joe Rosshirt, owner of FortHouse Studios. © Brian Fitzgerald*

“Kids from an early age all think they’re artists. They’ll raise their hands if you ask them in kindergarten class, says Joe Rosshirt. “Every year that goes by, less and less hands will come up, to a point where you’re self-conscious to put your hand up.”

Joe Rosshirt is an illustrator, animator and artist who operates FortHouse Studios out of his home studio in South Portland, Maine. Over the past 15 years, the Maine College of Art (MECA) graduate has worked with all types of clients incuding national and regional marketing agencies and sells his own creations at art festivals and other venues.

It’s a long way from his childhood, when he remembers doubting his dream of being an artist. “I thought, I shouldn’t be an artist because all artists are poor,” Rosshirt says. “You think that ‘starving artists’ is the one rule for artists. It’s a limiting belief.”

Rosshirt has operated out of other spaces, but this studio—he’s been here for about a year—is the first he’s owned. “I love the security. I don’t have to think where I’ll be next year. My rent’s not going up and I’m not getting pushed out. That was always a back-of-the-mind issue with all my other spaces,” he says.

Rosshirt’s previous studio was larger and ‘gorgeous’ but he says he realized after a few years that it wasn’t the space that made him an artist. “The space affects your creativity, turning into a creativity vacuum chamber. If you make the space your own, your ideas can live there. It feels like I can just access those ideas by being here.”

Rosshirt doesn’t have a set schedule, usually getting into the studio by 10 but often working odd hours. “I transition into work mode easily. Even in the middle of the night, I act on it,” he explains. “Nine-to-five never got me into a flow state. Lightning strikes of creativity can’t be predicted.” He adds: “The Stephen King style isn’t for me: ‘Show up, do work, get out.’ Not my approach.”

One of the things Rosshirt loves most about his work is going to art shows, where he sells directly to the public. “I have this tagline, ‘Make Happy Happen'”, he says. “I just want to spread smiles. That’s enough. I don’t need to make the sale.”

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.”

Cut it Out: When Less is More

October 4, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creative, Creativity, Inspirational, Mainers at Work

Maine Cops — *Pete Herring, District Game Warden with the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, © Brian Fitzgerald*

My default mode seems set to Acquire: Get more gear, more software, more skills, new stuff. But more isn’t better. It’s often a trap. Over time, the act of acquiring can become the goal itself.

That’s why the skill of subtraction is so important.

Subtractive lighting is critical in portrait photography. Blanket a subject with light, and then step by step, remove or block light to reveal shadow, shape and negative space. Stop when things get interesting. Light makes images possible, but shadow is what gives images definition, mood and impact.

The same concept applies elsewhere in life. Pruning makes plants stronger. Editing is critical for impactful writing. Decluttering homes make it easier to live in them. Cutting away the old and extraneous gives space for other things to grow.

Adding new things to life is fun and essential, but so is regular culling. I try to carve out time regularly, ideally at least twice a year, to evaluate and to subtract things that no longer work for me or are preventing progress on meaningful work. Embrace the process of subtraction by regularly and systematically clearing out the overgrowth in your life. You might be surprised by the things you learn and discover along the way.

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Erica Moody: Forging Art in a Maine Barn

September 26, 2023 0 Comments read Blog, Creativity, Mainers, Mainers at Work, On Location, Personal

*Erica Moody with Elio, © Brian Fitzgerald*

Erica Moody, a metal fabricator and artist, sits in the late-1800s barn that now serves as her workshop in Waldoboro, Maine.

Moody has been working with metal for more than three decades. After years working in Boston, she chose to move to Maine to forge a simpler life—and the handcrafted serving utensils she is increasingly known for. Moody uses traditional metal crafting methods to make spoons, knives and other wares from copper, brass and steel. Her work has been featured in local and national publications, such as Bon Appétit and Saveur.

After years of working with large pieces of metal, her scaled-down workshop—filled with vintage machining tools—is the perfect place to create her one-of-a-kind spoons, coffee scoops, and knives. It’s also attached to her home, built in 1854. “To be close to home, to be able to work right here is everything. It’s why I moved to Maine,” she says.

Metal Artist Erica Moody — *© Brian Fitzgerald*