Vessels is a body of fine art landscape photography I have made along the New England coast over the last thirty years. The photographs are limited edition, hand-numbered, and printed in small runs. Every image is captured on film with a large format camera. None are digital. None are composited. Most of them are of small wooden boats, dories, skiffs, canoes, and lobster boats, with the occasional sailboat catching just enough wind to move.
The boats live within a few miles of where I grew up. The North River runs along the boundary between Marshfield and Scituate, a tidal river fed by the Indian Head River and Herring Brook, and it empties into Massachusetts Bay at New Inlet. From the mid 1600s through the late 1800s, more than a thousand ships were built along this river. The shipyards are gone. The marshes and the small boats that work them are still here. So is the river itself, the first state-protected scenic river in Massachusetts.
This is a piece about the photographs in the Vessels collection, how they were made, and why I still make them on film.
August Afternoon
If I had to pick one image to start with, it would be August Afternoon. It is the most popular piece I have ever made, and it has a lot of personal meaning to me. I shot it within walking distance of my home. The two boats, a dory and a skiff, appear to have been posed by their owner Jim Fox. Jim is a famous boat builder and restorer, and he lives there overlooking the marsh.
I swam in this creek and played in these marshes throughout my childhood. I remember falling waist deep into the cold April water one spring when my father helped to launch a boat. That was the end of that Saturday morning’s excursion. Dad wasn’t too pleased.
The bird in the frame is a Night Heron. He flew over and landed while I was taking the photograph. That kind of thing happens when you work with a large format camera. You are set up, you are waiting for the light, and the world cooperates or it doesn’t. That morning it did.
Old Town Guide Model
The image I consider my signature piece is Old Town Guide Model. The canoe was built in 1935 by the Old Town Canoe Company in Old Town, Maine. My father bought her around 1960. He restored her. She has been in constant use since then, with a third generation of my family paddling her all over New England’s lakes and rivers.
I photographed her at dawn in the fog of Moosehead Lake. The mist was doing what mist does on those mornings, sitting on the water and softening everything. The film picked up the warmth in the wood and the cold of the water at the same time, which is something I have always found interesting about working in this medium.
A photograph of a canoe that has been in your family for three generations is not really a photograph of a canoe. It is something else.
Why film, why large format
People ask me all the time why I still work on film. The honest answer is that the camera I use, a large format film camera, makes a different kind of photograph than a digital sensor does. Film holds tone. It compresses highlights softly. When I print a photograph at 60 inches or 90 inches wide, the grain becomes part of the image. There is nothing to sharpen artificially. What I saw is what is on the wall.
Digital is a wonderful tool. It just isn’t this tool.
The other reason is pace. With large format, you set up the camera, you compose, you wait for the light, and you commit. Each frame costs something. You think before you take it. That slowness shows up in the work, even if you cannot put your finger on why. It is the difference between a snapshot and a piece of fine art photography.
The places
The geographic range of the Vessels collection is essentially the New England coast and the inland waters I grew up paddling. Cohasset, Hingham, Marshfield, Scituate, Duxbury, Cape Cod from Wellfleet to Chatham, Nantucket and the Vineyard, and the Maine lakes north of Greenville.
A few I want to point out:
Madaket Autumn. I found this scene and shot it on the spot. The boat belonged to Fred Rogers, yes, Mr. Rogers, and it sits in the marsh at Madaket on Nantucket. Anytime I can work a weathered cottage or home into a coastal scene, I count it as a success.
Cohasset Harbor. I sometimes wonder if the lobstermen in Cohasset collaborate on hull colors. There is a full spectrum of tones in that harbor on any given morning. Reds, blues, greens, whites that have weathered into something else. A photograph composes itself before you set up the camera.
Capful of Wind, Wellfleet. I passed this scene on my way to the National Seashore to photograph dune paths. It was a light wind, but this sailor managed to get a decent amount of speed going. I stopped, set up, and made the frame. The dune paths could wait.
Chatham Skiff. I shot this one specifically for what I call Wyethesque tones. I love the range of tans and browns here, and the way the boat just seems to pose itself. Andrew Wyeth’s work has always been somewhere in the back of my mind when I am out with the camera. Not as a thing to imitate. More as a reminder of what restraint looks like.
On limited editions
Every photograph in the Vessels collection is a limited edition fine art photograph, hand-numbered, printed in small runs. When the edition is sold, that is the end of it. The negative still exists, but the edition does not get reopened. I have had collectors ask me about this and the answer has always been the same. A limited edition is a limited edition.
I mention this because there is a great deal of fine art photography for sale online that calls itself limited edition without actually being limited. I print mine in genuinely small runs. When I say the edition is closed, I mean it.
Bringing a photograph into your home
Most of the rooms these prints end up in are large. Great rooms with high ceilings, entry halls, lobbies and waiting rooms in places where people need a minute. A few have gone to coastal homes on the South Shore where the buyer wanted a window onto the marsh they couldn’t quite see from the actual window.
The photographs in this collection work in those rooms because they don’t ask for much. The boat is the focal point and almost everything else is composition. Marsh, water, sky. At 60 inches wide, a piece holds a wall without shouting.
If you are trying to figure out whether a vessel image is right for a particular space, look at the longest unbroken wall you have and ask whether you want the room to feel calmer or busier. If the answer is calmer, the dory pictures and the skiff pictures and the small sailboat pictures tend to work very well.
See it in your space before you buy
One of the things I built into the website is a tool called See It In Your Space. You upload a photograph of your wall, give me rough measurements, and pick a piece from the collection. I send back a rendered preview of the framed print on your actual wall, in the size and frame option you are considering. It takes about a day. There is no charge and no obligation.
Buying fine art photography at this scale is a meaningful decision, and a flat image on a screen does not always tell you what a 60 inch print is going to feel like in a real room. For sizing reference and current pricing, the Print Sizes and Pricing page lays out everything from the 40 inch standard up through custom installations.
See the full collection
You can browse the full Vessels collection here. The collection is updated when new work is finished, which is a few times a year.
Related collections you may want to see
If the Vessels collection speaks to you, the work in these collections often appeals to the same buyers:
- Water and Sky. Open coast, surf, and sky from Cape Cod, Cape Ann, and the islands. The companion collection to Vessels.
- Dunes and Estuaries. Marshes, dune paths, and tidal scenes from the South Shore and the Outer Cape.
- Driftwood, Lake and Stream. Black and white work from the Maine lakes, including the Moosehead series.
- New Releases. The most recent additions to the body of work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these photographs digital or film?
Every photograph in the Vessels collection was shot on film with a large format camera. Nothing is generated, composited, or digitally captured.
How large can these prints be made?
Standard sizes range from 40 inches to 90 inches on the long edge. Custom sizes beyond 90 inches are available for installations that need them. The largest prints I have made have been over 10 feet wide.
Are the prints framed?
Framing is offered on every print. I work with museum-grade framers and match the framing to the image. Unframed prints are also available if you have a framer you prefer.
Are these limited editions?
Yes. Each photograph is hand-numbered and printed in a limited run. Once the edition sells out, no more prints of that image are produced.
Where are most of these photographs taken?
The majority of the Vessels collection is shot along the North and South Rivers, Cohasset, Hingham, Duxbury, Wellfleet, Chatham, Nantucket, and the Maine lakes. The geographic range is essentially the New England coast and the inland waters I grew up paddling.
Do you offer trade pricing for interior designers?
Yes. The Designer Trade Program is open to working interior designers, architects, and stagers. Trade pricing applies to the full collection.
