ROCKPORT, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Peter Ralston has been photographing the coast of Maine for 35 years, and he likes to say his initials aren't PR for nothing. There's nothing he seems to like better than joking around with the many people he sees while out on his boat, "The Raven." But PR could just as easily stand for personal relationships because it's Ralston's friendships that have truly inspired his work.
"The two defining characteristics of this coast are the physical beauty and the character of the people. And if I had one or the other -- were I forced to choose -- it would definitely be the people. They're just so good... for the most part," Ralston said.
He was introduced to Maine in 1978 by famed painter Andrew Wyeth and his wife, Betsy. Ralston had known them since he was a kid, growing up a stone's throw away from their home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
He said, "I mean, that's really where I went to school. That was my college, higher learning, all rolled into one was the two of them, their standards, their encouragement, their faith, their criticism, they're really really tough. They were not easy."
And they knew he'd find his best work here. Ralston says he immediately fell in love with Maine, but it took a little while for his adopted home to warm to him. In 1983, Ralston and his friend, Philip Conkling, co-founded the Island Institute, dedicated to preserving Maine's island communities. The reception was chilly at first.
"I mean, here we were, two guys from away, from Rockland, not even from an island, and everyone was suspicious. I mean, 'What are they really after? What do they want? What's their spin?' But you show up and you do what you say you're going to do. And you do it all the time... You show up in the winter. And that opened first a few wharfs to us, and then a few boats, and then doors, and then, ultimately, over the years, hearts."
Ralston was able to use that access for his art, and use his art to gain the trust of the fishing community. "You get a good picture of a guy's boat, and you've got him for life," he said.
And yet, with all this love of place, love of people, love of photography, there were 6 years when Ralston didn't shoot at all. He had just finished his first big book of photography, called "Sightings," in 1997. It earned him all kinds of accolades, but he said he was already trying to figure out what to do next. And then he experienced a health crisis, a series of strokes, and a tumor. He had surgeries, and slowly, he recovered.
But he still had no sense of what he wanted to shoot, so he didn't. That is, until two friends tricked him back into it, asking him for advice on picking the best camera for themselves. "And I rattled off a couple camera bodies, a couple lenses and this and that.," Ralston said. "And they said, 'Tomorrow, we're going to call the camera store in New York and we're going to order all of that for you.' And... it was a gift."
And his friendships continue to inspire his work. Ralston opened his own gallery shortly after leaving the Island Institute in 2010. And he's hoping to have a new photo book out by Christmas of 2016.
After his health crisis, he realized the answer to what to shoot was right in front of him.
Ralston said, "I do think back to Andy, particularly, who never painted more than a couple miles from the studio. So I'm thinking maybe, maybe what I try to do is just keep going deeper, deeper deeper."
