BRUNSWICK, Maine — As he begins his second term as a U.S. senator from Maine, Angus King has not given in to cynicism, which is something of an accomplishment given how much there is in Washington to be cynical about. Simply gazing at the building where he works still leaves him with a sense of awe. “I live east of the Capitol,” he says, “so coming up in the morning and seeing the sun rising and lighting up the dome, I can’t get over it.”
That sight and dozens of others have been captured by King in a book of his photographs called “A Senator’s Eye.” He has no illusions about being an especially gifted photographer, but he is an enthusiastic one, snapping away with his cellphone from Maine to Washington to Iceland to Afghanistan. Being a senator gives him access that provides rare opportunities when taking pictures. “One of the points of the book is to share those inside views,” he says. “It’s not a typical tourist picture of the White House or the Congress.”
In the last year King took a particularly good photo from the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and another good one in the office of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He made prints of each shot and gave them to Schumer and McConnell as gifts. Will that bipartisan photographic spirit make any difference in Washington? Almost certainly not. But wouldn’t it be nice to think so?
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