WESTBROOK – For the past 15 years, an annual party hosted by the Bakery Photo Collective has been growing, and it’s now one of the largest events at the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook.
Photo A Go-Go, an auction that supports collective, has grown from representing 30 artists during the group’s first year to showing works from 130 photographers this year. According to collective member James Helms, it is the largest group photography show in Maine.
Tonee Harbert, a photographer who has been a member of the collective for about six years, said the auction has come a long way. Last year, some 500 people came through the two-hour exhibition.
Harbert says the event brings the Greater Portland arts community into Westbrook, and also gives needed exposure to the photographers.
“It’s a way for emerging and established artists to get their work seen and purchased by collectors and gallery directors, and even museum curators who come to the event,” he said. “Some pieces that are purchased at the auction will end up in some serious art collections and in museums.”
The event, and its accompanying buzz, is in stark contrast to last week arts news, when the Saccarappa Art Collective, just around the corner on Main Street, announced it would close at the end of the year. The closure of the only downtown art gallery is seen as a setback for a Westbrook community that has attempted to find a foothold in the regional arts community.
“The Saccarappa Art Collective closing was unfortunate,” Harbert said.” I don’t know exactly what will keep the idea of a downtown arts community going. We are a small part of what could be a vibrant arts community.”
The Bakery Photo Collective moved to Westbrook some eight years ago, after being located on Pleasant Street in Portland in what was known as the Bakery Studios. The collective’s 4,000-square-foot space in Suite 265 of the Dana Warp Mill offers a full studio and lab, which means photographers can shoot there, as well as develop film, scan and print photos all in one space.
The Bakery Photo Collective has seven members, a number that has fluctuated through the years. However, during that time, Photo A Go-Go has consistently grown.
Helms began as an intern for the organization, and has now been a member for about five years. In between setting up for the event, Helms said Tuesday that he loves coming to Westbrook to work in the collective’s space, which he loves to tell people features 13-foot ceilings and views of a waterfall.
“I like to think that when people come out here, they see some of the beauty that Westbrook has,” he said.
He said the lab features a color processor, a rare item in the photography world that develops color analog film.
“We’re just trying to get the word out to people who are interested in photography at any level, that this is the place to be,” he said.
Helms, who works full time as a commercial photographer, but is also a fine art photographer, said Photo A Go-Go is a large undertaking that takes months of planning. With 130 artists, he said, he likes to think of the auction as a barometer of the photography world in Maine each year.
“It’s a super spectrum of work,” he said. “To see it all in one place, with many of them from Maine, it’s cool to see what people are into right now.”
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