Photographer Kris Larson interviewed by Sharon Kitchens

Wayne Robinson/Rasco’s Junkyard, Machasiport/May 16, 2008

What is your earliest memory of photography? How did it come to you or how did you find it?

The Family of Maine, being the book of the monumental 503 image show put together for the Museum of Modern Art (New York) by Edward Steichen in 1955. This book was given by an uncle and aunt to my father and mother for Christmas 1964. That was the genesis of my photography.

What (project) do you want to do next?

Blueberry season 2010.

What is your most personal image? What is the story behind it?

“The Baptism of David,” Larrabee Cove, Machiasport; July 27, 2008. A saltwater baptism of David Anthony Glidden (then 16), by the pastor and one of the deacons of my church. I had no film in my Leica M6, so I used my Hasselblad 500C, planting the legs of the tripod in the edge of the water. Everything fell into place.

How do you reconcile yourself when creating an image and the final is not what you first conceived?

I attempt to find it at the next opportunity.

What equipment do you use (most regularly)?

Leica M6/35mm rangefinder camera/35mm Summichron lens

Tell me about the place(s) where you create your images.

After I frame the images and press the shutter button I am finished. I am a perfectionist and would rather have another (trusted and capable) individual do it once right in the darkroom than me 100 times wrong. In other words, I have a regular processor/printer for my film and photographs. Where I ‘create’ is at my dining room table when I matte and frame the finished photographs, usually with music from my library or NPR/CBC radio on my living room sound system accompanying this work.

Three Jonesport Rakers/Jonesport/September 5, 2009

Scowl/Wesley/August 2000

Alien Land…/Wesley/August 24, 2000