Historic Coastal Way of Life

Fishing Weir Study IX Campobello by Lisa Tyson Ennis

Historic Coastal Way of Life Documented

in Photography Exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum

Searsport, Maine, June 16, 2014 – Lisa Tyson Ennis takes photographs the slow, old-fashioned way with medium and large format cameras, black and white film, and long exposures.  She hand-prints her images one by one in a traditional wet dark room.   The subjects that intrigue her are also old-fashioned and disappearing.   Her exhibit at Penobscot Marine Museum, What Once Was - Our Changing Fisheries, documents, in her haunting and unusual style, a pre-industrial way of making a living from the sea which is nearly extinct.   The opening reception for Ennis’s exhibit is Saturday, June 28, 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm in PMM’s Main Street Gallery, 40 East Main St, Searsport, Maine. The exhibit will be at PMM through Tuesday, July 29.

Lisa Tyson Ennis lives in Lubec, Maine and is fascinated by weir fishing, a sustainable way of herring fishing which used to be practiced in Maine and is now only found in the Maritimes.  She travels the coast and photographs weirs when she finds them, hoping to make a final record of these historic weirs before they disappear entirely.  She also visits and photographs remote fishing communities in Newfoundland which can only be reached by boat.  Many of these remote communities are abandoned, having been “re-settled” by the government when cod fishing declined.

Lisa Tyson Ennis’s photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Tides Institute in Eastport, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Portland Museum of Art.  What Once Was - Our Changing Fisheries is at Penobscot Marine Museum Saturday, June 28 through Tuesday, July 29.  Penobscot Marine Museum, on Route One in Searsport, has seven new exhibits and over fifty programs and events during the 2014 season.  It is open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm, and Sunday noon to 5:00 pm through Sunday, October 19.