PORTLAND, Maine — Call it the Powerball question. If you won twenty million dollars in the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with your life?
I put the question to Isaac Remsen, a professional photographer in the Camden-Rockland area who grew up there and has taken tens of thousands of photographs of its hills, fields, houses and seascapes. His answer surprised me, probably because it didn’t have much to do with having a fortune in the bank.
“I’m really looking forward to the time when we can get back to going to concerts again,” he said. “That’s where I made my reputation when I was living and going to school in Boston. I was shooting a lot of concerts and working with a lot of musicians to capture their moments both on stage and off.”
That entire part of Remsen’s career—not just his career, really, but of his life—disappeared in the past year. “With the pandemic basically shutting down venues, it’s almost like everything I’ve shot [in music] before is now part of some period piece.”
Although live concerts have been taken away, Remsen can still work. The beauty around him offers endless opportunities, for which he’s grateful. “I’ve been here for most of my life, outside of going to school in Boston,” he said. “And I’m always looking for ways of highlighting the great state of Maine.”