Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

DENIS THOET: Photographer’s day an exercise in capturing human relationships

Last May, at a silent auction to benefit the Gardiner Farmers’ Market, I had the good fortune to “win” a day with Andy Molloy, KJ photographer extraordinaire. I waited until the last moment to place my $26 bid, beating out the competition by 50 cents.

The appointed day was set for Sunday, June 27, and, Andy picked me up at 10 a.m. He had a few ideas about where to go and what to find, and he had two scheduled assignments at the end of the day.

First stop, the former Bakers Acres Farm off Route 127, where new owner Lew Kingsbury was doing work on the post and beam barn. Kingsbury was retiring from Bath Iron Works and was turning the property into a working farm and garden.

In the 1990s, a couple of kids named Kingsbury swam with my two girls, Eleanor and Eliza, on the Bath YMCA and Morse High School teams. When I mentioned it, Lew threw his head back with a laugh — and Andy got that shot, too. Lew and I had shared a lot of time and conversation at those swim meets.

Andy’s photo of Lew pounding a post into place appeared in the KJ the next day, on page B1. Andy said the photo would show everyone in the area that the property was in good hands.

Keeping eyes open for discernable activity (haying, in particular) but finding none, Andy headed for the Pittston Fair Grounds, where the Central Maine Dressage Association was holding a meet. Andy knew just about everyone there, and shot countless frames of participants as they passed the judging booth. “I love to harass people, and I love it when they harass me back.”

Andy had a cold, or a bad case of allergies that day. He stopped at the convenience store in Pittston and bought a Diet Pepsi and Pop-Tart.

It was noon, and time for food, and that means A1 Diner in Gardiner. Andy noticed that two young girls were practicing their bike-riding skills in the former Movie Gallery parking lot.

When he got back to the diner, Andy described his encounter with the girls.

“I started taking pictures, and the older girl said, ‘Who are you?’ I said I was a photographer for the Kennebec Journal,” Andy said.

“Do you have identification?” the older girl asked. Andy produced his KJ identification and was permitted to continue taking pictures.

The photo of Erin Qiu, 11, helping her sister Hannah balance on a two-wheeler appeared in the Tuesday, June 29, edition of the KJ.

On to Oakland Farms, the ancestral home of Sylvester Gardiner, Kennebec Proprietor, pharmacologist, surgeon, merchant, farmer. Andy was looking for Logan Johnston, husband of Phyllis Gardiner, who might have been haying at the time, but was not.

Instead, he found a tenant of the farm, Ben Slayton, who has an operation that includes pasture-raised pigs and chickens (meat birds).

Andy introduced me as “Denis Theo,” and Ben quickly countered, “Oh, you are Denis Thoet.” He and his partners operate a meat-processing shop in Wales, called Farmers’ Gate, where their pigs and chickens and those from other farmers can find a local market for healthy meat.

A photo of Ben scratching the shoulder of one of his pigs appeared in the June 29 KJ.

One of the scheduled appointments came next, at the Gardiner High School tennis courts. Andy was to shoot a photo of Jared Hornecker, KJ Boys Tennis Player of the Year.

Not to be satisfied with a straight-up mug shot, Andy gave me the strobe — with instructions to point it at Jared’s face — and asked Jared to drill a ball into the net, where Andy, lying down, would shoot the shot.

Many takes ensued, and, finally, the perfect shot! The photo appeared on page C1 of the KJ Sports Section, Monday, June 28. The ball appears as a blur almost as big as the player to its right. High-fives all around.

Our final stop of the day, also scheduled, was at the home of David and Jayne Hickey in West Gardiner, where son Jackson was chosen to throw out the first ball at the Red Sox-Tampa Bay game on Tuesday, as part of the disability awareness program.

We came upon Jayne, Jackson, and his brother Kyle and sister Emmie, playing Wiffle Ball in the front yard. Perfect.

Andy shot many, many frames of them at play, and then settled on a family portrait, which was published in both the KJ and Morning Sentinel on June 28. Luckily, I got an action shot of Andy shooting the Hickeys for our farm newsletter, since the Hickeys have been members of our Community Supported Agriculture program for the last three years.

So did the day end, with a valuable insight: Andy, to me, is a photographer of human relationships, as well as “news events.”



Denis Thoet and his partner, Michele Roy, own and manage Long Meadow Farm in West Gardiner. www.longmeadowfarmmaine.com.

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