hello, this is tonsofland

The phrase "tons of land" tumbled from a friend's mouth roughly 25 years ago during a week-long road trip Downeast, riding up the coast to Eastport, then on to Fort Kent, down through the Allagash and finally home to Portland. The phrase has been bouncing around in my head ever since, as the most basic description of what Maine represents, or certainly what it meant to me years ago: an opportunity to find some land and live your life. Not long after that trip my wife and I moved away. I pined for my native state for twelve years until we finally returned to Maine in 2015. We got our life back, we found our land, and we’re here to stay.

For the last decade I’ve rarely been without a camera by my side. I grab one or two heading out the door for our beach walks or hikes, and when I leave town on one of my regular business trips. Photography slows things down for me, sometimes literally in the moment of composure and other times in the days and weeks after the photo’s been taken. It causes me to notice details in a way I never did before I owned a camera. Now I see those details almost everywhere I look even when I’ve left the camera behind. I find myself thinking more deeply about my subjects and it often leads me down a rabbit hole of research for a better understanding of the places I love and how they came to be.

Enjoy the photos. Thanks for taking a look…

-Brett