Camden photographer Patrisha McLean packed her camera bag five years ago and set out to explore three islands of Maine, to understand and chronicle the children who are raised on the hardscrabble landscapes. With a clarity of purpose and an unwavering gaze, she was met head-on with the same honesty from her subjects. That’s what makes McLean unique in a state where photographers can be a dime a dozen. She is not so interested with beautiful architecture and broad coastal view sheds. Her eye is trained on the people, in this case the children, who are intricately tied to their communities and geography. 

There is no guise in McLean’s portraits. This is Maine. Often beautiful, often harsh. Her work is social documentary, but with an exceptional sense of grace.

The focus, she said, is on the islands closest to Camden — Islesboro, North Haven and Vinalhaven, These happen also to be the only offshore Maine islands with K-12 schools, and vibrant summer and year-round communities that go back many generations.

“My decision to photograph island children might have been sparked by the urchin with bleached hair sitting on a bench outside the gift shop on North Haven, or the cluster of kids in the back of an ancient pickup truck collecting ferry passengers on Monhegan,” she wrote in her introduction to her new book, My Island: Portraits of Maine Island Children. “All were as connected to the woods, rocks and ocean as they were detached from Walmart.”

McLean intersperses her photographs with excerpts of conversations with the children.

"In the winter, the whole mud-flat area is covered in thin ice and it looks like Wite-Out was applied everywhere," said Ian, 17, about his backyard on Islesboro. 

Elorraine, 8,  said about her favorite hiding place: "There's a big rock that I can sit on, I can grab a tree and swing on it, plus I get to see my dogs running around."

In 2010, McLean published Maine Street: Faces and Stories from a Small Town, a book of Camden residents captured in time and place. As a follow-up, she decided to focus on the islands.

“We are not a boating family, so I was not aware of the islands in my midst until I started taking my two children — Wyatt and Jackie, now 22 and 25 — on Down East ferry trips,” she said. “Some of our happiest summer days were spent playing Sorry and Boggle at the Island Inn on Monhegan, making up songs about Isle au Haut on a dock at sunrise with Wyatt on guitar, and riding our bikes around North Haven, Islesboro, and Vinalhaven. Even though I have been a professional children's photographer for 20 years, I didn't take my camera on these trips because I wanted to fully immerse myself in these precious times with my kids. But I noticed how the children who lived on the islands were different than other kids— wilder, and more confident, and this sparked a desire to document them.”

In June, she published My Island: Portraits of Maine Island Children, an elegant and timeless collection of faces encapsulated in 160 pages, with 120 black and white duotone photographs, distributed by Islandport Press.  My Island is being distributed by Islandport Press and is available at local bookstores and gift shops, as well as through McLean's children's photography website www.patrishamclean.com.

“The images in My Island were all taken with my Mamiya medium format film camera,” she said. “I have photographed with black and white film from when I studied with Mary Ellen Mark 25 years ago at the Maine Media Workshops. (It is a thrill and honor that Ms. Mark blurbed my book). I find color distracting in portraits. With black and white the focus is on the person's eyes, expression, and pose and not the background, or what he or she is wearing. Black and white is also a link to my favorite period of photography, social documentary from the 1970s.”

McLean is signing copies of her new book this month:

Islesboro: Artisan Books, Thursday, July 23, 2 p.m.

Vinalhaven:  Five Elements Gallery on Main Street, Saturday,  July 25, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Rockport:  The Ralston Gallery, Thursday,  July 30, 5:30 p.m. 

Castine:  Witherle Library, Monday, Aug. 10, 7 p.m. 

What will be her next project? 

“Maybe the children in Havana,” she said. “The neighborhoods are like bombed-out Iraq as far as the buildings, but with no computers or TVs to keep the kids inside. The children throng the street playing baseball (sometimes with bottle caps and sticks), tag, and card games.”

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657