ROCKLAND — “How do they know we’re here?” a teenager from the Bronx asked Annie Mahoney, of Rockland.

“Uh, do you think you look different,” Mahoney asked, in response to her young house guests’ warm reception by Rockland residents.

Mahoney hosted the four teenage photography students from the Bronx who’ve been in Maine this week freeze framing various aspects of Midcoast life.

During the visit, the group got up close to grave stones at a cemetery in Owls Head; interacted with live lobsters at the lobster pound in the same town; walked through a nature preserve and gallery on Vinalhaven; toured Maine Media College in Rockport; marveled at the view from Cadillac Mountain; and inhaled country life, courtesy of the Union Fair. They’ve swam in the ocean (very cold), and eaten “real doughnuts.”

All the while, they worked their lenses and shutters.

During the Vinalhaven trip, 16-year-old Mitchell Dennis snapped 500 photos. Most would be deleted. The few worthy of salvation will appear in a class slide presentation to dignitaries back in the Bronx responsible for funding the nonprofit. 

Cofounder of the Bronx Photo League and leader of this week’s trip, Mike Kamber grew up in Brunswick. His mother photographed for the Maine Times, paving the way for Kamber’s interest in Maine landscape photography, starting around age 12.

After art school he found freelance employment through Reuters, Associated Press, and others.

Five years ago he and his friend, Nathanial Jackson, turned to teaching at a time when all fine arts were eliminated from the public school curriculum.

“We just felt like there was a need for good quality photo and documentary education,” Kamber said. “Especially free and low cost, because, you know, especially today a lot of the education programs are so expensive.”    

Mitchell is one of those students fortunate to attend the program. His aunt, with whom he lives, is a photographer, as well. Through her, he has cultivated a love for photos deep enough to work a job picking up trash, just to earn money for a camera. He has worked all summer, not yet earning enough for the D3000 he sought. Instead, impatience won out, and Mitchell purchased what he considers a step down: the P600.

Of course, overall, the camera is only part of the experience allotted to this incoming senior of the Bronx High School for the Visual Arts. On a train ride in NYC last spring, Mitchell met Kamber, who spoke of the League, which in turn led to Mitchell’s acceptance to the program. For Mitchell, the program has led to this trip to Maine. This trip, in turn, has led to an introduction of small communities.

When asked what resonates most about his trip to Maine, Mitchell said: “Maybe the way this community works. It’s kind of small, very different from the Bronx. Everybody is friendly, and everyone seems to know each other.”

Mitchell and his group mates ate boiled lobster for the first time while in New England. After that, they held their own Q and A session with Rockland Mayor Louise MacLellan-Ruf. Most of those questions revolved around diversity, or the lack of it.

In June, the New York Times published an article about Kamber’s Bronx Photo League. Two of the photos featured were taken by Fanta, a 12-year-old girl whose mother emigrated from Mali and her father from Senegal.

Fanta lives with her siblings and her mother, a single-parent who works 12 hours a day, every day, in the same neighborhood as the photography school. Kamber saw her walking past one day and told her to come in for a class.

Her favorite snapshot of the Cadillac Mountain trip was that of being at the top of Acadia at a time when everyone was sitting down.

“Jesus and Mitchell were sitting at the edge, so it looked like they were just sitting at the edge of the world. It was super cool.”

The group tackled Acadia National Park on Thursday, the first day of free admission for the public. According to him, finding a spot to take pictures without a person in the frame was challenging and intriguing.

For 14-year-old Fritzi Garcia, who started working with black and white photos by age 12, the best part of the week was experiencing the quiet Rockland neighborhood and swimming in the cold Maine ocean.  

She loves black and white landscape and nature pictures, “because of their shapes and how they form,” she said.

Sarah Thompson can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com.