Sternman as Artist: David Wright

First published in the MLA Newsletter, October, 2012.

David Wright, 29, wanted to work outdoors, preferably on the sea. Now he is the hardworking sternman for John Grant of North Haven, putting in the long days and hard work required at this time of year. But that’s fine with Wright, who uses his time on the water to fuel his other career, photography. Wright recently sold one of his photographic images of Penobscot Bay to the magazine Real Simple.

Wright graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in 2006 with a degree in photojournalism. A friend who worked at the Maine Media Workshop in Rockport led him to a job with that organization. “I moved here the day after I graduated,” Wright explained. Later that year he approached John Paul Caponigro, a renowned photographer famed for his otherwordly images, who lives in Cushing. “I saw him lecture at the Workshops and asked him if he needed an assistant. His previous assistant was leaving and he hired me,” Wright said. “That was good timing and luck.” Wright worked with Caponigro for two years, helping print images, arrange exhibits, archive digital images and organize Caponigro’s many teaching workshops.

Those years were a time of exploration for Wright. “John Paul works with the computer [digitally manipulating his photos]. I am a straight photographer. I started doing 4x5 portraits of friends and my family or the landscape of Cushing,” he said. One day Wright mentioned to Caponigro’s wife his interest in traveling to Africa. She in turn told Wright about a close friend who ran a non-governmental organization called A River Blue which worked with children in Uganda. “She introduced me [to the director] and in the spring of 2009 I went to work for them, teaching photography workshops sponsored by Fuji USA,” Wright said.

A River Blue works with children made refugees during Uganda’s long civil war, providing vocational and rehabilitation training. The organization’s program emphasizes the arts as a way of healing some of the incredible mental and physical wounds suffered by the children. “A River Blue teaches farming, forestry and business skills to the children before they return to their villages as a way for them to make money,” Wright explained. Wright’s work addressed the trauma many young people had experienced prior to arriving at refugee camps in northern Uganda. “These are teenagers,” he said. “It’s hard for them to talk about their emotions or explore themselves. So I had the kids take pictures of each other and talk about what had happened.” The young photographers then wrote about what they had learned about each other through the photo shoots.

Wright was also making his own photographs while conducting the photography workshops. He would go to a village at sunrise or sunset to capture the beauty of the Ugandan landscape. When he returned to the United States he eventually entered some of those images in a photo contest in New York City. Conscientious, a Web site devoted to fine art photography, conducted a portfolio competition in 2009; Wright was one of three photographers selected to hold his own show, with proceeds from sales of his work going to A River Blue.

“The show was great. It raised a ton of money for A River Blue and led to a lot more volunteers going to Uganda,” Wright said. After the show closed, Wright headed back to Maine. He wanted to work outdoors and through a friend, found work as sternman for Mike Mesko of Vinalhaven.

“I fished with Mike in the fall of 2010 and then all 2011,” Wright said. “I started making photographs on his boat.” As it turned out, Mesko himself was something of a photographer and made time for his sternman to snap some shots. “He would see something that he thought would make a good photo and he would stop so I could make the picture,” Wright said with admiration.

In 2011 Wright held a solo show at Asymmetric Arts gallery in Rockland. It was the first show of his images taken in Maine. One of the people who viewed the show was the photography editor of Real Simple magazine. “She sent me an email asking me to submit some images to her. And she ended up buying one,” Wright said. “It was serendipity. Things fall together.”

This year Wright is fishing with John Grant on North Haven, setting aside money for his future plans. He said that working with each of the two lobstermen has been a valuable experience.  “When you are lobstering about a million things can go wrong and the last thing you want to do is freak out. Photography is very calm and contemplative but you also have to be very aware. There’s a similar balance between being calm and aware yet ready for anything,” Wright explained.