The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

During the summer of 2023 I visited my daughter and her family on her forest farm in southwestern Maine from my home in Bangkok, Thailand.  It was wonderful to be in the cool, fresh air of the northeast USA.  My good Bangkok friend John has a cabin up the coast near the Canadian boarder.  We planned, while still in Thailand, to take a road trip from his cabin up through the Canadian Maritimes, a region neither of us had been.   We took only the very small farm roads from the southwest to the northern coast.  Along these wonderful New England roads I saw the most amazing old houses and farms.

An old Maine feed store. I love these old places with the weathered surfaces.

My friend John's cabin sits in deep primordial forest a stones throw from the Atlantic ocean.

John's magical forest.

John's land had so many different kinds of mosses and lichens.  Astonishing beauty.

A short walk through a state park lead to this rocky shore.  Fantastic!

We spent hours clamoring around and over these huge stones.

A wild and wonderful natural seashore.

The cabin is not that far from Milbridge, Maine.  We drove around the area visiting interesting places and scenes.  This collection of buoys and floats was interesting.

A lovely rural farmhouse near Milbridge, Maine.

Milbridge, Maine sits aside the Narraguagus River estuary.

Milbridge Bay is as idyllic a Maine scene as you can get.

A panorama of the view dockside at the community bandstand . . . where we would join the community for a nostalgia rock band concert.

Milbridge, Maine has a public community garden; if you put in time and labor then you can take flowers and vegetables out of it.  I love it.

John and I decided on a general route.  I made a couple online cheap motel/dorm bookings (it was the tourist busy season), and we saw a couple of "points of interest" on the GoogleMaps that we used to point us in a general direction.  Lighthouses seemed the common denominator.

Early one morning we loaded our stuff up and headed up the highway to see what we could see . . . and photograph, of course.  We more-or-less hugged the beautiful Maine coast, discovering these quaint fishing ports.

The West Quoddy Head Lighthouse was one of our first destinations.  We were not disappointed.

West Quoddy Head is the easternmost point in the contiguous United States.  Now you know.  It is also the point closest to the African continent in the United States.  Interesting.

We crossed over into New Brunswick, Canada near the small town of St. Stephen with it's lovely old church.

St. Stephen sits on the Saint Croix River directly across from Calais, Maine, USA.  Both of these towns were major industrial centers in the last century, due to their access to the Atlantic Ocean and short sailing to England and Europe. Evidence of their past manufacturing glory can still be seen, as in this old river power generating station and adjacent mills.

A commemorative riverside statue recognizing the mill workers in the factories of Calais and St. Stephen.

A beautiful street mural in St. Stephen with a view across the Saint Croix River to Calais, Maine.

Calias, Maine from across the Saint Croix River.

At one time St. Stephen rivaled Hershey, Pennsylvania as the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, but eventually lost out.  In 2000, St. Stephen was given the title of "Canada's Chocolate Town." Who knew?  We did not tour the Chocolate Museum, but we did hit the gift shop for some tasty (and expensive) chocolate.

A short walk off of the downtown Main Street found us in neighborhoods of old "carpenter Gothic" Victorian houses, testament to the wealth this town once had.

We let GoogleMaps guide us to a very beautiful spot after an off limits nuclear power plant road thwarted our attempts to get to another lighthouse.  This is Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick near sunset.

A Dipper Harbour fishing boat.

Visually fascinating woven old tires for boat pier rub-rails at Dipper Harbour.

Dipper Harbour sunset.

A final Dipper Harbour sunset photo before returning to our little motel cabin.

A lovely seaside home on the back roads to St. John.

We moved on . . . to where the street photography in St. John, Newfoundland was very rewarding.

Lovely old row houses in St. John.

I am a big fan of old doors . . . . 

There were some lovely tree-lined lanes in St. John.

Classic red brick wall with old faded painted signage.

In addition to the red brick row houses, downtown St. John had some lovely old carpenter Gothic grand homes.

The St. John City Market (est. 1855) was one of the highlights of our visit there.  Did I buy a St. John t-shirt here?  You bet I did!

Not all of St. John is quaint and charming.

The downtown St. John cross streets all lead down a steep hill to the Bay of Funday.

We continued along the coast of the Bay of Funday in search of more photogenic lighthouses.  We followed the maps to Cape Enrage Lighthouse, New Brunswick, out on a promontory.  We paid an entrance fee only to then discover that access to the lighthouse was closed due to high winds.  Oh well.  This is as close as I got to use a long lens.

A fishing port along the road.  This shows just how big the tidal differences are in the Bay of Funday.  

The drive along the Newfoundland coast was fantastically beautiful.

The Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Funday are described as a "must see" attraction in Newfoundland.  Indeed it was an extraordinary scene.  It was also a must see for several thousand other tourists on the day we were there.  We had to wait quite a while for our turn to access the photo vantage point.  Worth it . . . but very crowded.

The truly marvelous Hopewell Rocks.  We marveled.

No matter where in the world you go there will always be that one roadside house with the yard full of "collectables." Everywhere!  Newfoundland roadside wonders.

After having dinner in a nice restaurant in Moncton, we drove on and spent the night in a dorm room at a technical college in Springhill, Nova Scotia.  I must have been pretty tired because I didn't take any photos at these stops.  The next morning we ate in the college cafeteria before we drove in to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a walkabout.  I parked the truck in front of a cemetery across from a park, and fed the meter.

We found this headstone humorous: like what else would you find under there?

The Halifax city park was in full bloom!

The Halifax waterfront is beautifully developed.

The Halifax quay side display of old Canadian Navy ships was interesting.

There were many displays of public art in Halifax.  I loved this sailor statue (reminded me of my Uncle Ernie!).

Old downtown Halifax was clean and neat.

Our next stop was across Nova Scotia at the historic town of Fort Anne . . . the birthplace of Canada, settled in 1629.

The old fashioned interior of the Fort Anne Cafe was very sweet.

Fort Anne is, of course, a major tourist destination for Canadians.  

Beautiful old colonial architecture abounds in Fort Anne.

A rainbow crosswalk in Fort Anne, Nova Scotia.

A typical old house in Fort Anne.

Restored harbour light house at Fort Anne.

At the end of a long day, we caught the East Ferry to Long Island, Nova Scotia, then on to Brier Island.  This is a very remote place in Canada!

The view from the East Ferry along the rugged coast of Long Island, Nova Scotia.

Brier Island is on the far Northwestern tip of Nova Scotia and takes two ferry trips to get there.  It is an old fishing/whaling area full of delightful old cedar-sided dock houses.

Beached lobster boats, Brier Island, Nova Scotia.

Such a beautiful and moody place . . .  and very photogenic.  Brier Island.  We caught the big drive-on ferry across the Bay of Funday from Digby, Nova Scotia back to St. John, Newfoundland before driving back to John's cabin in Milbridge, Maine.  I don't know why I do not have photos of the 3-hour big ferry trip, oh well.

After returning to John's cabin in Milbridge, Maine, we took to the small roads to explore some of the small towns nearby.  Cherryfield, Maine, ironically known as the "Blueberry Capital of the World" was the perfect New England picturesque village.

We had good coffee and cakes at this sweet Cherryfield riveride café.

A beautiful old turreted Victorian home in Cherryfield.

Like a lot of small villages in New England, Cherryfield had its share of antique shops.

Nice yard art in Cherryfield.

Caddywampus old store in Cherryfield.  Looks like it was just moved there and puton a new foundation  . . . . unsuccessfully.

What you always hope you will find on a road trip: the perfect roadside diner . . . .

 . . . with the perfect lemon meringue pie!

One of the highlights of my visit was attending the Milbridge Days parade and lobster feed at the firehouse.

Milbridge, Maine is more multicultural than you might expect.  This was nice to see.

As Milbridge is a lobstering village, the parade had a lobster theme.  Sweet.

Oh! To be a lobster in the town parade! Memories are made of this!

I love a parade.  Yes, the Shriners showed up with their "street boats."

The highlight of the day was the lobster and mussel feed in the firehouse. 

John and I had a great time rambling around Maine and the Canadian Maritimes for a week.  Thanks John.

The unforgettable beauty of the Maine coast.

Just travelling along the highway from Leesville, Louisiana to Selma, Alabama, via Natchez,  all the way across Mississippi with my friend Bud riding along, we pulled off on a side road to seek refreshment and saw this gem from an older America: The Simmons-Wright Company store.

Only a mile or two before the Mississippi - Alabama state line.

The Simmons-Wright Company is a historic general store established in 1884 in Kewanee, Mississippi, a small town just outside Meridian in Lauderdale County. The building was listed on the  National Register of Historic Places in 2008. It looked inviting, so we walked right in.

A peek through the dusty window before we entered foreshadowed the delights within!

OMG! We walked in to find this time capsule of another era; the general store.  I am old enough to remember these kinds of stores from my childhood living in The South, but never imagined one would have survived, intact from that time.

All original store fittings, shelves, coolers . . . .

 . . . there was even the 'origional' cash register.  Amazing.

The cash register was a masterful work of art from a bygone era.  The mess around the store must have made it feel like a comfortable old shoe to the old man sitting behind the counter.  He kept a good eye on us as we wondered around.

A little bit of everything a person might want to stop in and get on the way home from the mill job.  I love the hand made  "No Children Allowed Without An Adult" sign.

No computerized stock control here, no bar code scanning or shelf space earning ratios.  You have to know your customers tastes. The array of food choices on offer speaks to the local cultural preferences.

The dry goods isle was half merchandise and half museum display.

There was a small "kitchen" area in the back.  Coffee, but it looked like we were either too late or too early for the cakes that go on the foil-covered trays.

An inviting pot belly stove surrounded by the "eating area."  I wondered if these seats filled up in the afternoon and evening with regulars who stop in to chat and for beer and snacks.

The pot belly stove was a work of art made of the patina of the passage of time.

The pot belly stove stood in a place of prominence . . . in the center.  It looked like it has been used right up into the present.  It was early October, but not yet chilly in eastern Mississippi, so it had not been stoked on this day.

The long side wall was was reserved for the "display only" shelving.

I walked around the old store in big loops taking photos and being stunned by the disheveled beauty of this space.

I hadn't seen or heard him enter, but at some point an old African American man came in and made himself at home.  He and the proprietor exchanged some friendly conversation in low, almost silent tones.

An "array of mixed plumbing supplies" and sweet potatoes.

"May I take some photos out back," I asked.  "Go right ahead," he replied as he pointed to this door next to the nail bins.

Nice.  A fine old, weathered back yard shed.

I love old rusted corrugation . . . I live for dilapidation and rusted corrugation . . . 

There was also an old "mill" of some kind behind the store. I decided to snoop around a little. An absolutely gorgeous corrugated building.

This door to the mill was locked . . . but what a photo!

This door was locked from the inside.

This image!  The things in this photo were made, manufactured, built, and assembled by somebody working somewhere at some real time and place in the past.  That cart was made for the purpose of moving around more than one man can hold at once.  It is also a tool of work . . . it was the focus of labor for some person as a part of their paid employment, day after day.

At last I found a large opened door on the side of the mill.  This machinery was inside . . . I snooped around more inside, but for the life of me, I could not figure out what this machinery was used for.  I even did a Google search . . . my guess was that it was a corn grinding operation at some time in the past.

These structures next to the mill were hints as to the purpose of the mill.  One looks like a 'corn crib,' but I am not sure.

Was ground corn meal blown up into this hopper for loading into trucks or barrels? I don't know, but  I loved the aged patina of the weathered wood . . .

The sun broke through a thin cloud cover and the light became wonderful.

Perhaps rooms for the hired seasonal mill workers?

I hadn't noticed this barber chair on the way in . . . but . . . I could have spent all day in that old country store and its outbuildings . . . but Bud and I had to hit the road.  We were heading for a place of great historical significance; Selma, Alabama, a place I have always wanted to make a pilgrimage.