PRESQUE ISLE – “All of the photos I take have sentimental value. They’re never random,” said photographer Terry Kilcollins of her work. Throughout the month of September, the Presque Isle artist is inviting the community to see the visual expression of those sentiments captured through her lens in the E. Perrin Edmunds Library at Northern Maine Community College.
The extensive collection of photos, which captures the scenery and natural beauty of Maine, is available for public viewing in the NMCC library Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. and Friday from 7:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. through Sept. 30.
Included in the exhibit are a number of photographs taken at Acadia National Part in July of this year. The Acadia photos focus on Maine’s natural beauty at the park. Featured photo subjects include pebbles on Pebble Beach, ferns in the gardens at Jordan Pond, lichen specimens on top of Cadillac Mountain, shells and rocks on Acadia’s many beaches and the park’s friendly seagulls.
Other Maine scenes captured by Kilcollins and included in the NMCC exhibit are several balloon photographs taken at the Crown of Maine Balloon Fest in 2008, crabapple blossoms, a windmill on a farm, an old hay rake, several birds, and chairs on Cross Lake, among others.
“I try to preserve the beauty of nature in a different angle than most see it,” said Kilcollins. “I so much enjoy this art form. I take thousands of photos, literally, and then dissect all of them to get the best, not just visually, but technically. All of my photography is still done on film. There is a lot more ‘give’ for lighting than with digital.”
One photo, in particular, in the current exhibit holds perhaps greater sentimental value than others to Kilcollins. The piece entitled, “The Cabin in the Fall Leaves,” is among her favorites as it was taken near the 200-acre potato farm she grew up on in Presque Isle.
It was growing up on that farm where Kilcollins says she earned her appreciation for nature early on. She recalls working in the fields with her three sisters, as early as age five picking rocks, pulling weeds, working the harvester, and in the potato house loading potatoes.
It is that love of nature coupled with her passion for photography that inspired Kilcollins, as an adult, to leave the education profession she had worked in for two decades and finish working on her photography degree. In 2001, she graduated with honors from the New York Institute of Photography in New York City.
Since then, she has opened her own business, TCK Photography, and specializes in combining formal photography with nature. She presently offers photography services for weddings, families, pets, senior high school portraits, proms and commercial photography.
Kilcollins has been published in “Savior” magazine and in “Echoes” magazine and has done promotional photography for new businesses and products.
For more information on the exhibit, contact Gail Roy in the NMCC library at 768-2734.
Terry Kilcollins
Photo courtesy of Northern Maine Community College
THIS PHOTOGRAPH of a windmill on a farm in the Caribou area is one of the many photos taken by Terry Kilcollins on display throughout September in the library at Northern Maine Community College.
