Damariscotta resident Al Trescot has published his third book of photography exploring the waterways of Lincoln County, “Tide & Current: The Sheepscot and Kennebec Rivers.”
The book contains 96 pages of color photographs, from the quiet shores of East Boothbay’s Ram Island to the industrial waterfront of Bath, each with a concise caption containing everything from history to personal stories to tips about navigational hazards.
The book has harbors and islands, lighthouses and lobster boats, sunrises and sunsets, yet also shows readers a side of the region’s natural beauty they might not otherwise see, if only due to the perspective. Trescot shot almost all the photos from the water.
For example, Trescot captures a trio of rock-climbers navigating the sheer rock face of Doggett Castle, a cliff rising high above the Sheepscot River on Westport Island.
The unique geographic feature bears the name of Samuel Doggett, who would moor his boat there and trade with the Native Americans in the 1700s, according to the caption.
Readers see other relatively obscure places with ominous names like Lower Hell Gate, a channel between Westport Island and Georgetown’s Beal Island; and Oven’s Mouth, a narrow passage between Back River and Cross River in Boothbay.
The book also shows readers a few of the region’s many picturesque islands and lighthouses that receive less attention than icons like Monhegan or Pemaquid Point.
Boats are another favorite subject – appropriate for a book of photography shot from Trescot’s 22-foot Eastern Blondie, a small Down East cruiser that shares the name of a long line of golden retrievers, according to the book’s introduction.
The several dozen photographs in “Tide & Current” represent a tiny fraction of the approximately 15,000 photos behind the book.
Trescot ventured out about three days a week for five seasons, often departing before first light. “A lot of my best pictures in there are taken at the crack of dawn,” he said.
Trescot struggles to name a favorite photo, although he has a favorite place from the book – the Back Door, a narrow channel between the southwest side of Westport Island and the Tyler Islands. The little-known and rarely navigated channel accounts for four photos in the book.
Trescot has two previous books to his credit: “In This Place: Muscongus Bay, Maine – Pemaquid Point to Marshall Point” and “Twelve Miles from the Rest of the World: A Portrait of the Damariscotta River” with essays by Walpole resident Barnaby Porter.
A U.S. Coast Guard veteran and former builder and cabinet maker who did not graduate from high school and has little formal training in his craft, Trescot was in his late 50s when he completed his first book.
Trescot is originally from Salisbury, Md. “My father was a Chesapeake Bay waterman,” he said. “I spent all kinds of time with him on boats, going out fishing and just going boat-riding with him in Chesapeake Bay.”
Trescot was in the Coast Guard from 1966 to 1970.
“I got stationed in Boston right out of boot camp, then I went to radarman school, then I got stationed in Portland, Maine, to which I said, ‘Where the hell is that?'” Trescot said. He moved to Portland June 15, 1967 and has been in Maine ever since.
As a radarman aboard the 311-foot cutters Castle Rock and Cook Inlet, Trescot helped man ocean stations.
In the days before satellite technology rendered ocean stations obsolete, the ships would motor far out into the Atlantic Ocean and stay several weeks to gather weather data and relay it to airplanes on trans-Atlantic flights.
When Trescot left the Coast Guard in April 1970, he stayed in Portland and worked as a community organizer focusing on housing issues at the West Side Neighborhood Center.
Having earned a GED in the Coast Guard, he enrolled in the Portland School of Art – now the Maine College of Art – taking photography classes in 1970 and 1971.
“I just got a camera one day, I guess because I just felt like it,” he said. “I just shot it as a hobby. It was just for fun.”
Trescot moved to Litchfield in late 1972 and to Round Pond around 1979 to 1980. He worked as a home builder during his early career before starting a cabinet-making business and later a kitchen design business, Rocky Hill Design.
He married Mary Trescot in 1986 and moved to Damariscotta, where he has lived ever since.
“I didn’t do any photography for years,” Trescot said, although he dabbled in computer-aided design and graphic design.
In 2000, he sold his cabinet-making equipment, moved his graphic design equipment into his shop, and Rocky Hill Design became a graphic design business.
At 68, Trescot still works between half and full time, operating Rocky Hill Design from an office and studio next to his home. He does advertising and marketing work for a handful of major clients.
He also publishes his own books through the Rocky Hill Publishing division of his business.
He expects to make “a few bucks” on the new book, although he could not say definitively why he makes the books.
“This book is partly art and it’s partly photojournalism,” he said. “It’s about a place and the other two books have been about a place also, and I think that’s different than a straight-up art book. There were things in here I felt like I had to show people.”
“I think there’s something to say in all of them,” he said. He also makes the books for his own enjoyment. “I think it’s fun,” he said.
He already has a fourth book taking shape in his mind. “My next project, if I survive that long, will be Casco Bay,” he said.
“Tide & Current” is available at the Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta and Sherman’s Books and Stationery in Boothbay Harbor. Readers can also purchase the book directly from Trescot at 380-6074 or al@rockyhilldesign.com.
