Peter Ralston Photographer – Storyteller
The Maine Coast: its Character, People & Beauty
Thursday, March 17, 2016
7:30 – 9:30 pm
Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive, Greenwich, CT 06830 (off I-95 exit 3)
Limited Seating – Please RSVP to StamfordPhotoClub@gmail.com
Peter Ralston has photographed the coast of Maine for 35 years, drawn especially to the working communities that define its character. He grew up in Chadd’s Ford, PA, a stone’s throw from the home of Andrew Wyeth who heavily influenced him throughout his career. “The Wyeths were my second parents, best friends and higher education, all rolled into one. Their standards, their encouragement, their faith and their critiquing were my doctorate, if you will.” It was “Andy” and Betsy Wyeth who introduced Peter to Maine in 1978. He immediately fell in love with Maine and in 1983 Peter and a friend co-founded the Island Institute, dedicated to preserving Maine’s island communities. He is also a founding Trustee of Maine Media Workshops and the Maine Lighthouse Museum.
His work has been seen in countless books and magazines, featured on network television and has been exhibited in galleries, collections and museums throughout the United States and abroad including the permanent collections of the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian), Portland Museum of Art, Mona Bismarck Foundation (Paris), Aomori Prefectural Museum (Japan), Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME) and Museum of Fine Arts (Boston).
Ralston has gone “deep” into mid-coast Maine capturing its beauty and the character of its people. The thrill of happening on that pure decisive moment, unique from all others, is the joy he responds to. As a newborn day arrives, man and nature are awake and at the ready – fisherman and photographer, both out for their own catch. Sacrosanct is the rule: no digital gimmickry. But Peter relishes what the computer offers in regards to expressing color and light and the ability to transform the digital negative into glowing prints that speak to his original vision. As Ansel Adams, with whom Peter studied in 1971, put it, “if the negative is the score, the print is the performance,” and Peter loves to perform.