Joe Young, Corea Wharf Gallery, Corea, ME.
The seed of the idea began when my aunt, Louise Z. Young died in 2004 (and left me her photographs and negatives). Louise worked as a professional photographer, beginning her career in Bangor, Maine then moved on to The Bacharch Studio during WWII and had her own studio on Beacon HIll in Boston. She later moved to Arlington, Ma. but Corea was always her home. While in Corea Louise took many candid shots of the area as well as many candid shots of the American painter and poet, Marsden Hartley. Louise also worked with Bernice Abbott in the 1960’s to rescue and print works of famed Paris photographer Eugene Atget. She had saved her 65 years worth of negatives and prints and I have digitized and printed them for this gallery.
After attending an art tour of the town of Corea in 2004 I decided to hang some of Louise’s prints and open my fish house for the public. A lot of Louise’s work had been turned into postcards as was the fashion in those years. Louise was a relatively unknown photographer. For example I attended an exhibit at a large museum and saw a photo of Marsden Hartly and the photographer was listed as unknown. I knew that Louise had taken that photograph. This inspired me to write and publish a book. I thought I would call it “Postcards from Corea” photographer unknown. This may still happen some day.
The first step towards having this gallery came when the TAA training began for Lobstermen, their wives and sternmen. My wife and I took the training and that is where we wrote our business plan and where we took classes to support our business goals.
I also had to teach myself how to do the photoshop work and had to learn a great deal about working with the negatives and the computer. It was important to find archival matting and packaging and to enclose the story of how Louise produced her work. As I was doing all of this work I also was cleaning up the fish house and gathering the old artifacts that I wanted to display amongst the photographs. A lot of the things that I have on display are also seen in the photographs. For instance the picture of the fishing weir shows these barrels that were used to float the nets. These photos of the lobster traps show the curved top traps like the one here. This is the pole that was used along with a steaming device to actually bend the wood. As you look around this place is surrounded with lobstering history. It is also used as a working fish house, the nails on the ceiling are used to hang my buoys as I repair them during the off season. I think that people get a whole historical experience when they come to purchase my photographs.
I have a great partner in my son Andrew. He built my website, helped me with the computer end of the business, works at the shop and does whatever I need to support me in the business. I promote through the use of the website, flyers that I have distributed and word of mouth.
I really enjoy meeting the people the most. I get people in here from all over the world and I love showing them the photographs and the artifacts.
My advice to people starting a business here on the peninsula is to begin by writing abusiness plan, it not only helps you to focus your ideas but it also helps if people need to pursue financial backing. It is a good idea to have a substantial amount of seed money to help you get started. There are quite a few hidden costs to opening a business. Also it is important to be flexible. I need to be able to operate this business and continue to fish.
I love working and living on this peninsula because this is where my family came from. It is out of the way, not crowded but you are still close enough to go places if you have to. I also think that this is a very good place to raise a family.
