Save the Date!

Exploring the Magic of Photography: Painting with Light
Saturday, November 1, 8:00 am to 2:30 pm
University of Maine Hutchinson Center, Belfast, Maine
80 Belmont Avenue, Belfast, Maine

Register online or call us at 207-548-2529

Conference Tickets:

• $50 Museum Members
• $60 Non-members
• $50 Teachers and Non-profit Employees
• $30 Students

History Conference Brochure

Schedule: 8:00 to 8:45 am – Registration

9:00 to 9:30 am – Evolution of the Photographic Snapshot
Michael Simon, Retired Professor of Photography at Beloit College
We live in the age of the selfie, but originally photography was the work of professionals and serious amateurs. In 1900 Eastman Kodak introduced the Brownie and suddenly everyone had a camera in their hand. What pictures did they take then, and how has it changed over time? The photographic snapshot has a fascinating history illuminating how we see ourselves as a culture.

9:45 to 10:15 am – Stalking the Elusive Historic Photograph
Bill Bunting, Maine historian and author of A Day’s Work: A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs 1860-1920 Part I & II, Live Yankees, and Sea Struck
Photographic treasures are hidden away in historical societies and private collections as well as attics and barns. Finding these gems is an exciting adventure requiring knowledge, skill, diplomacy, patience and persistence. The rewards of saving these documents of our cultural heritage are enormous.

10:30 to 11:00 am – Beyond Nostalgia: Four Maine Women Photographers at the Turn-of-the-Century
Libby Bischof, Associate Professor of History, University of Southern Maine
In this richly illustrated presentation, Bischof will discuss the lives of four Maine women photographers working at the turn of the century: Chansonetta Stanley Emmons, Emma Lewis Coleman, Emma Sewall, and Joanna Colcord, focusing on the common themes in their photographic work, as well as their inclinations towards local history and preservation. She will also address modern interpretations of the work of these photographers as sentimental and nostalgic and offer an alternate perspective based on their historic preservation work.

11:15 to 11:45 am – Documenting Fishing in New England 2005-2014
Sam Murfitt, Professional Photographer
For over ten years, Sam Murfitt has been documenting Maine’s Working Waterfront. He has photographed the lobstermen, fish and bait dealers, boat builders and fishermen both on dry land and at sea. Seeing the fishing industry rapidly changing and disappearing, he decided to focus his attention on documenting the disappearing traditions and crafts, and the people involved in them.

12:00 am to 12:45 pm – LUNCH

1:00 to 1:30 pm – Photography and American Literature:  From Ideal to Real
Laura Saltz, Associate Professor and Director American Studies Program, Colby College
To paraphrase historian of photography Gail Buckland, photography is not merely a technology, it is also an idea. This talk gives an overview of the ways that American literature helped articulate the idea of photography in its first few decades. As both an ideal force of nature and a model of realistic representation, photography in turn helped change the literature that sought to imagine its meanings and potentials.

1:45 to 2:15 pm – Close to the Land & Close to the Sea: The Photography of Kosti Ruohomaa
Deanna S. Bonner-Ganter, Curator of Photography, Art, and Archives, Maine State Museum
Many legends surround the Finish-American photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, and it is said his life was “haunted”. Ruohomaa was an award-winning photo journalist who shot iconic portraits of working Americans which appeared in LIFE, National Geographic, and other publications from 1940 to 1960, but Maine was always his favorite subject. Bonner-Ganter has studied Kosti Ruohomaa for twenty years, and her biography of Ruohomaa will soon be published by Down East Books.