Photo book captures the charm
of San Juan Islands' ferries
posted 06/25/02
Riding the ferries week after week, year after year, islanders rarely reflect on the big boats' simplistic beauty or even consider the complex operation of the routes in the San Juan Islands. Photographer Robert E. Demar and writer/designer Robin Atkins expose the charm of the islands' fleet in Nautical Highways: Ferries of the San Juan Islands.
"I'm happy as a new father," Demar said of seeing his dream published as his first book.
"I have a new respect for the ferry system, the people who operate the boats and the boats themselves," Atkins said of working on the project.
The 72-page, self-published book contains more than 90 of Demar's black-and-white photographs of ships, crews, passengers, terminal workers and island landscape. Perspectives range from close-ups of an engine in a boat's belly to a wide-angle vantage high as an eagle above the islands' waterways. Brief captions accompany the images.
Nautical Highways: Ferries of the San Juan Islands is available directly through www.interisland.net/robertdemar. Copies are also available at Griffin Bay Bookstore and Islands Studio in Friday Harbor. Large prints of the many of the book's images will be displayed in the lobby of the San Juan Community Theatre Aug. 2-31. An artists' reception is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Aug. 17 in the theatre.
Demar started on his first book before moving to the San Juan Islands in 1989. While photographing homeless people along Seattle's First Avenue, Demar would occasionally wander toward the waterfront and snap shots of the ferries. He continued taking pictures of he ferries during motorcycle trips to the San Juans. After finishing a photo essay of the San Juan Island National Historical Park's American Camp, he began shooting the ferries in earnest in 1993.
"It seemed like a natural project to document ferry travel in the San Juans," Demar said.
"I expected to do it a couple of years. It went longer and ended up in the can, as they say in Hollywood," Demar said.
Demar spent hundreds of hours on the water. He walked the outside decks, hung out in the wheelhouse, descended into the engine room, wandered the passenger cabins, cruised the car decks. Skippers and their crews provided technical terms. Friends ferried him in their private boats so he could photograph the boats from different perspectives and helped select which photos to publish.
Working with an public agency as large as Washington State Ferries could have been daunting and even difficult, but Demar encountered nothing but cooperation. "Everyone was so charming... the captains and crews. It was almost magical," he said.
Plenty more hours were spent in the darkroom printing the photos to perfection before Atkins converted them into digital images.
Atkins, who met Demar at a photography workshop on Whidbey Island in 1997, provided the push and expertise to take the 3,000 to 4,000 medium-format images and turn them into a book. She drew on experience gained while co-authoring Beaded Embellishment: Techniques and Designs for Embroidering on Cloth and publishing One Bead at a Time: Exploring Creativity with Bead Embroidery.
Demar husband figures his photos might never have been published in a book if he hadn't met Atkins. "If not for Robin, I would have had to do it with someone else. It would've been hellish," Demar said.
"It was a real privilege to work on this with Robert," Atkins said.
Demar is pleased with the result. "There's been good vibrations," he said.
And their marriage survived the test of publishing the ferry book. "We both enjoyed it," Atkins said. "It was great working with her," Demar said.
The couple plan to collaborate on another in the future. They want to publish a collection Demar's homeless photos with the subjects' stories but are going to take a break first. Don't be surprised if you see them on motorcycles on the deck of a ferry.
For more information, see www.interisland.net/robertdemar and www.interisland.net/robinatkins
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