Denton, Maryland
Mark Dignen
For fifteen years I've been photographing the Chesapeake. It has never been my job, and I think that's exactly why it works.
I've spent my career in 911 and police communications — a supervisor now, the other end of people's worst days. The Bay is where I go afterward. There is no radio traffic at sunrise on Hoopers Island. Just the water doing what it has done for a very long time, and about twenty minutes of good light if you get there early enough.
So this is a hobby in the truest sense of the word. I photograph what is still out there and what won't be out there forever — the abandoned houses, the workboats and shanties, the ice that closes the bay some Januarys. Denton sits on the Choptank, and nearly all of this work was made within an hour or two of it: Hoopers Island, Saxis, St. Michaels, Wye Island, Terrapin Park, Sandy Point.
I'm just trying to share the craft, and the Bay I love. If there's a place on the water that means something to you, ask me about it — fifteen years does not all fit on one page.