An evening ferry ride from Portland carried us across Casco Bay between lighthouses and fishing boats to Peaks Island. The sun was warm and the air was fresh. Immediately after stepping off the boat, we could feel the island vibe in the air, feel it drape over our shoulders in a way that made us feel lighter. Pickup trucks, cars with no license plates, and - can you believe it - a taxi cab all clogged the ferry terminal waiting for passengers to disembark. We were in no such luck to have a vehicle on standby for us. Us three girls (me, Mary, and Emma) hoofed it up the hill with bags in tow, heading for the other side of the island.
We passed by nautical little homes with backyard fire pits ablaze, back alleys riddled with golf carts for tut-tutting to the island store. Realizing that we had farther to go than we thought, we hitched a ride with a kind mother-son duo in a mini van. They asked us to please be careful of their cake on the floor of the backseat, and be careful we did. That confection looked delicious!! After a very short yet still very generous ride, we hopped out at Battery Steele, an old World War II military fortification. Largely overgrown with greenery and covered in graffiti, the old fort is an interesting mix of natural reclamation and the "I was here" declaration of various humans.
Mary was the DJ and stylist for the shoot. My camera wasn't always pointed in her direction, but I was able to sneak a few in with her. She is so gorgeous:
Emma was our model for the adventure, and she brought so much grit and grunge. Broken glass, dirt, spiderwebs - you name it and she was there working it. As we made our way deeper into the fort with more graffiti and darker rooms, I couldn't help but think that Emma looked like a beautiful mystery who had gotten lost on her way home from a night out and made herself queen of this overgrown urban landscape:
We stayed until sunset and then turned back the way we came. From far away, we could see Portland lit up across the bay against an orange sky and all agreed that it looked much more like the city newcomers know it to be than the small town we grew up in. What felt like an infinite adventure in a different world had transpired all within the little pocket of Monday's evening.