Mark Marchesi is a South Portland-based photographer on a mission. After spending four years studying photography at Maine College of Art, followed by a brief career as a bait seller, crab cooker and sternman, his new project is one close to his heart-documenting Portland’s working waterfront. “My plan is to take thousands of photos in Portland-and hopefully make my way up the entire coast,” he says. “I want to preserve Maine’s oldest surviving industry on film.”
Marchesi’s idea for the project stemmed from his time working on the waterfront after graduating in 1999. Having focused on art for four years straight, Marchesi longed to be on the water, having grown up fishing recreationally in his hometown of Rye, New York.
His first position was with Nancy’s Shellfish on Holyoke Wharf. “In the mornings I’d fill barrels with bait and, by mid-afternoon, I’d buy fish from the lobstermen and sell them to wholesalers,” he says. “The lack of critiquing art was a welcome change at the time.”
Marchesi headed west that winter, but came back to the Maine waterfront the next summer, this time as a sternman.
“I fished on Christie’s Turn, a lobster boat off Long Island. I’d take the ferry to Long Island in Casco Bay, put in a long day and then take the ferry back to Portland. At times it felt like working on an assembly line, but you can’t beat the landscape around you.”
Once the lobstering season came to an end, he tried working on a dragger, but lasted only one trip. “After that, I was ready to concentrate on photography again,” he says.
His glimpse of the fishing community stuck with him, but it took a back seat for a couple of years while he started a family with his wife Michelle, buying his first home and working a full-time job. “Even when I wasn’t working on a wharf, I always found myself going back there. I knew that I wanted to capture it,” he says.
Marchesi’s project began a few years ago, when he started video documenting the waterfront and spots around Portland in his film The Town and The City. “That project was more conceptual since I was trying to create a narrative about the identity of New England, whereas now I’m trying to create a historical document.”
His mission is to capture the scenery along the waterfront at a time where fishermen grow more scarce and where working waterfront access is increasingly at risk.
“My original idea was to document every wharf along the coast of Maine, but that might be too lofty right now,” he says. Instead, Marchesi chose to focus on the location closest to his home-and heart.
His photographic interest rests in three categories: portraits, landscapes and interiors. “The interiors are the hardest part,” he says. “I’ll go down and ask someone if I can photograph them and try to question what’s going on inside, but some people are hesitant to let me in.” He understands it’s a close-knit circle he’s trying to capture, and not everyone wants a photographer watching them work.
Marchesi’s project is backed by his own wallet, a Good Idea Grant from the Maine Arts Commission and a Kickstarter fund.
Kickstarter is a platform where individuals can fundraise on their own by directing supporters to the Kickstarter website to make donations for a project. No money changes hands unless the project is fully funded by its expiration date. Marchesi’s current goal is to raise $2,000 by June 21. “I don’t really love asking for hand outs, but the venue they’ve created makes it a little more creative than just calling everyone you know and asking for money,” he says. The site allows the individual raising money to offer rewards in exchange for donations. “It allows me to give something more tangible to my backers than just my utmost appreciation,” says Marchesi. Donors will receive gifts like a ‘preserve the waterfront’ magnet, a quart of home cooked lobster and haddock chowder or an 11×14 limited edition print.
The money raised will go entirely to film. One roll of large format sheets, traditionally used for document purposes, costs $4 per sheet and processing can cost up to $6 per photo. “In an ideal world, I’d like to surpass my goal of $2,000. Even if I reach my goal, people that believe in the project can keep giving to the fund,” he says.
Marchesi continues to look for funding sources and recently sat down with the Maine Maritime Museum to discuss his project. “It’s hard as an individual to receive funding for a project, since I’m not considered a non-profit,” he says. “There might be opportunities down the road for a fiscal sponsorship, but right now I’ll keep plugging away.”
Currently, Marchesi is excited for the summer, when he’ll have some free time in the evenings to photograph the waterfront at dusk. “I’ve set up the fundraiser so that the last day to reach my goal is my birthday,” he says. “Hopefully it’ll be a good one.”
To view Mark Marchesi’s portfolio and to donate to the project, visit http://www.markmarchesi.com/
Laura Serino is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.