Maine Photographers #245

Jeff Roberts:

I really, I absolutely loved capturing the culture, capturing my own adventures, capturing, you know, the other side of the world that I was then hooked. So I came home and for my 16th birthday I asked for a more legitimate camera.

Trent Bell:

But I knew deep down that something had to change and somehow ended up here. I haven't quite fully digested it. I'm always kind of looking forward of how to move forward, so I'm not really as much always looking back and wondering exactly why it worked.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you're

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

listening to Love Maine radio show number 245, Maine Photographers, airing for the first time on Sunday, Monday, May 29, 2016. We meet many talented photographers through the work that we do with Maine Magazine, Maine Home and Design and Old Port Magazine. Today we speak with two who have had distinctly different career paths. Jeff Roberts began his love of international photography with a high school adventure. Trent Bell trained in and practiced architecture before finding his vocation as a photographer. Each has a true passion for his work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you for joining us.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a writer for Maine Magazine and the Wellness Editor, my job is words and I'm really privileged to work with a number of very talented photographers for our magazines whose job really is the images and really. Jeff Roberts is one of these photographers who helps make Maine Magazine, Maine Home Design, the publications that they are today. We have Jeff Roberts here in the studio with us. He has worked as a photographer internationally

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

from Boston to Burma to Budapest.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When not behind a camera, Jeff can be found home brewing beer in a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

blizzard, shucking fresh oysters, stoking bonfires, exploring the Maine woods, and willfully getting lost

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

in new places throughout the world. I'm glad you got yourself lost at 75 Market Street. Thanks for coming in.

Jeff Roberts:

Thanks for having me. It's great to get lost here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, we really enjoy the work that you do. You have an upcoming piece, I believe, about the fish houses in the June issue of. I think it's Maine Home Design.

Jeff Roberts:

I believe they've actually moved it to Maine Magazine. So lifestyle y and so sort of embodied the fun of Maine summers that they said it was more appropriate for Maine magazine.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you've done everything. I mean, I think you've done pieces, you've done a lot of work on dwellings, houses and such, but you've also done some people, you've done some images.

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, I'm lucky. I've sort of. Throughout my career as a photographer, I've shot quite a bit of different types of work. I worked as an international travel photographer for a while. I've shot a bunch of fashion and beauty work, food work, architecture, portraiture, sort of the gamut of things. Not a whole lot of babies or pets, but aside from that, I've kind of done it all. So I'm really fortunate to have shot so many different genres and sort of have moved my focus from different types of work to the other. I think I've now mostly settled on architecture and commercial product photography. But I really, I think the range has been a lot of fun and has also helped teach me things for genres that I'm learning from other genres that I wouldn't have learned had I stuck with just certain types of photography.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me about your photographer's journey. How did you get to be a photographer in the first place? Why do this?

Jeff Roberts:

When I was 15, a family friend was nice enough to bring me along to a trip to Africa where we climbed Kilimanjaro and then went on safari. It was two weeks before my 16th birthday and I borrowed my parents camera from the 70s and you know, pretty subpar cameras from the 70s and I just had a blast. I really, I absolutely loved capturing the culture, capturing my own adventures, capturing sort of, you know, the other side of the world that I was then hooked. So I came home and for my 16th birthday, asked for a more legitimate camera. Took the standard route of taking classes in high school and all that. And then I went on to a regular camera. Good old college degree, religious studies, emphasis in Buddhism. Not very applicable to either photography or, frankly, jobs. The monasteries weren't hiring a whole lot, so from there I worked with at risk youth for quite a few years. But also photography was a hobby of mine throughout and I did a few jobs on the side and it slowly transitioned away from working with these with the kids to slowly doing more and more photography jobs and eventually just became full time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So why not just jump into photography?

Jeff Roberts:

Partially because it's really hard to do. A lot of people want to be a photographer. I'm very fortunate to have made it work as a career. But I, you know, like most things, I knew nothing about photography. So it took a long, long time and a lot of bad pictures to learn how to take some good pictures. I still take a lot of bad pictures and I'm perfectly okay with that. You know, failures are to be embraced.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think some of the photos that I saw on your website are just beautiful images of people. Has your experience working with people maybe at at risk youth or maybe with the Buddhist studies? I mean, has that enabled you to get better shots of people?

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think frankly, a lot of it is my travels and plunging into worlds that are completely unlike my own, I think that could really help. The exploration of other cultures is a lot of fun to me, whether it's, you know, in the middle of India or whether I'm visiting a friend who lives on an island in Canada. I still want to know, you know, sort of about the natives in their. In their natural habitat. And that applies to Maine. That applies to everywhere. I'm just sort of forever curious and I try and I try to apply that to my photography, and I hope that comes through.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm interested in this Buddhist studies idea, I guess, because Buddhism has become very popular. It's become the thing that everybody talks about. We all talk about Metta, we all talk about loving kindness. Sure, there's like yogis everywhere, although I guess that's more Hindu, but meditation has become a thing. But to actually focus your studies as an undergraduate on that, what was the draw?

Jeff Roberts:

Well, you know, it's funny, I said I'd never be anything like my father. He's a college professor and his focus is Protestantism and how that affected Darwinism and vice versa. And I swore I would never be anything like him. And I ended up Doing basically the exact same thing, just on the other side of the globe with a different religion. When I was 17, I was. This was because I climbed Kilo Munjaro. We were some of the youngest people to ever do what was what's considered the hard route. And so mountaineering companies were interested in some of us becoming guides. So I then had a trip to Tibet, Nepal, and Thailand when I was 17, and that just blew my mind. I really thought the cultures were just incredibly interesting. They were nothing like anything I'd ever experienced. And so I really, you know, against better judgment and advice. When I was in college, I just took the classes for what I was interested in and sort of come my junior year, I said, oh, I should probably pick a major by now, and looked at what I had the most credits in and realized that I obviously was focused on Eastern religions and was really intrigued. I should add that I left college more confused about my own religion than I entered. But I really enjoy studying the culture and the interplay between the culture and religion. And it makes my travels more fulfilling because I can, you know, when I'm looking at the art or the sculptures or the carvings or whatever, at least I can understand some of the background, some of the stories.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

All I'm sitting here thinking, as you're talking, is, what a gift. What a gift to be 15 years old on Kilimanjaro and be 17 and all these travels, truly, what kind of great parents must you have had to let you go out in the world and do this?

Jeff Roberts:

Well, it's funny. They were really conflicted. My dad's a college professor, and my mom has always worked for universities. So me leaving school for any reason was really painful for them and difficult to accept. But I think, in retrospect, they've realized that those two trips alone, one could argue, sort of formed the basis of who I am. My love for travel, my love for photography, and a willingness to explore and accept other cultures. So, yeah, I mean, it's completely a gift, both in that somebody actually picked up the tab, but also in that it was some of the greatest experiences of my life and planted the seed for my, you know, addiction to travel. A long time ago, it allowed me to see things that a lot of other people in my school, in my social circle, were not as fortunate to be able to see. And so nowadays, when I travel, I try to post ridiculous things on social media and Instagram and all that to try to inspire others to travel, because I think it's something that's often lost on People, So I don't know if it's really giving back, but, but I was inspired to travel by others, so now I'm trying to do the same for others.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Did that require any sort of fearlessness when you were 15?

Jeff Roberts:

Probably. But when you're a 15 year old boy, you're pretty darn fearless as it is. It's funny, my dad did not think I would have wanted to go to Africa. So when he was first given the offer for me to go, he said, no, I don't think so. But I, you know, nothing is more exciting than trying something new, exploring a new place. So it was, it was purely fun. I mean, climbing the mountain is not a whole lot of fun at all times, but it was still even. That was one of the hardest things I've ever done and was still amazing and fun in a sort of a sick sense of the way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What I love about this conversation is that so much of what we do with kids in high school is very tracked, is very, you know, you do this, then you do this, then you do this. And, and because you took this detour early on, I think in your mind. Well, I don't want to presume, but it seems like you could have more easily said, well, but this is a possibility and over here is a possibility and I don't have to be on the same track. Everybody else is on track.

Jeff Roberts:

Sure, sure. Yeah. I actually delayed getting my driver's license because of Africa, which everybody thought was just absurd. But now that I've been driving for 15 years, I think the six month delay was not a huge sacrifice.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But that's actually a very good example. I mean, I think that when we're young, and I would say even when we're heading up into middle age, we do things and they seem to have to be on a certain timeline for whatever reason that somebody else has decided that we need to be on that timeline. But then when you look at the bigger picture, what's the big deal?

Jeff Roberts:

Right?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Where's the end point in all of this?

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, yeah. I think the traditional timeline is vastly overrated. I think it's important to find your own way, find your own timeline.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What is your. How did you end up in Buxton, Maine? You live here now. I know you have an Ocean park connection with your family.

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, so my great grandfather built a cottage in Ocean Park 100, 200 five years ago, something like that. And that was then. He had four sons. And so that has then been split up among the extended family. So my mother went there every year of her life for a couple weeks. I've gone there every year of my life for a couple weeks. I moved around quite a bit as a kid. I'm originally from Boston, lived in Wisconsin, live, lived in Michigan. So kind of always thought I would continue to be a nomad. I'd never lived anywhere longer than five or six years. At one point I had sold everything and was planning to move to Bocas del Toro, which is an archipelago in Panama, because at the time it was incredibly simple or easy. Residency laws, path to citizenship. You could buy an island for $30,000, you'd build a house on stilts over the water for $30,000 and then you own paradise. During that time I was also working as a travel photographer. So I did a year long project in south and Southeast Asia and halfway through that project I got an email from my real estate agent lawyer down in Panama who said that Panama changed all their residency laws and it was no longer possible. Suddenly you needed a half million dollars. And you know, at 27, I was sadly about half a million dollars short of a half million dollars. So I then went on. So I sort of, I quite literally looked at a map. I was on a rural island in Indonesia when I found this out. And I looked at a map of the US and said, where do I want to go? And I knew that I wanted a place that had great outdoors. And so I thought about northern New Mexico, Utah and Maine. And I realized that Maine just sort of fit better politically, culturally, etc. To have New York be five hours away, Montreal five hours away, Boston two hours away. And now I'm in. For me, it's the ideal. I can't ever imagine leaving because I'm a half an hour from Portland, I'm a half an hour from the ocean, and I'm half an hour, maybe 45 minutes from the White Mountains. It's an amazing thing. It's something you, you don't have in most legitimately cool cities. And I think Portland is legitimately cool. We have an amazing restaurant scene, amazing art scene, amazing music scene. I couldn't ask for a whole lot more, but I still get to live in my own little house out in the woods. For me, it's just perfect. And I say that as somebody who's always lived in cities. So at first the idea of moving to the woods was a little, a little intimidating. I've seen, you know, every horror movie ever has the scary neighbors from outer space, and I've yet to meet those scary neighbors from outer space. So I don't know. I love living in the woods and I don't really see myself becoming a city dweller again anytime soon.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So if you're living out in the woods but you also love to travel, there must be an element of your personality that enjoys solitude, that enjoys quiet and peace and nature.

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, but I say that with hesitation. I sort of struggle to relax. Relax in the traditional sense of the word. Me exploring something new and tracking down curiosities is my way of relaxing. You know, this winter I spent seven weeks in India and going to the chaotic part of Old Delhi where it's every, you know, all of your senses are being overloaded. That in a, in a, in an odd way is still relaxing to me, but at the same time walking through the trails that are adjacent to my property, you know, alone in the middle of the night with a full moon reflecting off of the, off of the snow and I don't even need a headlamp. That's a whole different sense of relaxation, but it's still tracking down curiosities. It's still, you know, an adventure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What drives you to be so curious?

Jeff Roberts:

I have no idea. Maybe because a lot of these interesting things were presented to me on my travels when I was young that then sort of sowed the seed of curiosity. I don't know, I think I've always been pretty, pretty curious. I ask too many questions too often, I think. I'm pretty sure I was a pretty exhausting child. Pretty sure I'm an exhausting 35 year old now too, so that's okay.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, it's funny because I think there are people who are content to just things are around them and things are around them. There's not really. They don't need to know more. They don't need to seek anything out. They don't need to travel anywhere and that's completely fine.

Jeff Roberts:

And I think that is completely fine. And in ways I'm jealous of that because I really fail at finding contentedness, just doing whatever I'm doing. I mean, I say that my, my current lifestyle I'm very happy with and content, but it's not staying within my own box. I fear my own, my own comfort zone. I really like getting pushed out and having to, you know, find my way while lost in Japan or, or whatever else that to me, that is, I'm more comfortable being uncomfortable in that regard, I guess.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you'd rather the uncertainty of something larger than the restriction of something smaller?

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, that's a great way of putting it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I actually enjoyed watching you go through India this last few months ago. I think that I enjoyed a few. I was watching you on Instagram, so it's a little bit of the travel voyager for me. It is very. I love, I love travel sites, I love travel photography. And it's fun to see. It was fun to see you doing this stuff. One of the things that you took a picture of, I believe, was this enormous tea plantation.

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it's staggering to think that what's happening over there directly impacts what we do over here. You know, my morning cup of.

Jeff Roberts:

Right, whatever it is. Yeah, this is Assam tea. I was sort of driving through at the time. I was staying in far far East India in a place called Nagaland. Headhunting was happening until 1950. It's on the border of Burma. It's this really sort of crazy alien place where almost nobody goes. I had to sign a book when I got there that every western tourist has a sign and there hadn't been anybody there in over a week. So it's a pretty interesting place to be. And when we were, we had a 10 hour drive from one part of Nagaland to the other and it made more sense to cross over into Assam, which is the adjacent state. And so there we are. I'm sort of, you know, driving along, I look around in all these tea fields and I see a sign that says Assam on there. And it is, it's very interesting because you hear about Assam tea all the time. And I've, you know, I spent three and a half months in India back in 2007 and it still sort of never clicks until suddenly you're standing in the middle of tea plantation surrounded by women picking tea with a sign that says Assam next to you. And it, you know, it's one of those things that makes this world feel really huge, but also immensely small.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think you also took a picture of, was it a monkey outside your window in a hotel? Which I found kind of amusing and slightly disturbing.

Jeff Roberts:

It is, it is a little disturbing. I think a lot of people who haven't interacted with monkeys, they, oh, cute monkey. But monkeys often like to rip your face off. So it's, it was, you know, it's interesting because you're in India. This is not land of safety glass and tempered glass. And I was in Varanasi at the time, which is right over the Ganges. And you know, I woke up in the morning and there's literally monkeys tapping on my window. It was an interesting thing. It was, it's fun though. I mean, it was my Own personal zoo with a view over the Ganges and the holiest city in India. To many it was, it's pretty amazing. It's one of those times where you have to pinch yourself. And I think that room was something like $7 a night too. Let's just to put it out there. I mean the fact that you can have experiences like that just show that it is very possible for kind of anyone to travel when you can stay at a Hotel for $7 a night. I mean, I think my own mortgage is a whole heck of a lot more than that. So it's just amazing to be able to have opportunities like that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But you bring up a good point. You know, you're talking about places like India not having tempered glass. There are a lot of safety things that we put into place for good reason here in the United States and actually many other places around the world that when you go to some countries those don't exist. So there is actually danger in just something like crossing a street.

Jeff Roberts:

Sure. Especially when you're in Asia where there's nobody stops, there's no such thing as a stoplight. You just sort of have to take a deep breath and just start walking and cars go around you. So there is, you know, there's increased danger, but that's, you know, leads to increased self reliance and just being smart and using good judgment. You know, when you're in a car a lot of times, especially if you're in a taxi, you don't have the control. So there is, there's certainly an element of risk. But I will also say that the most impressive hospital I've ever been to was a hospital in India. It was impeccably clean. I was, I actually met with a doctor within five minutes and I was out of there within about an hour, hour and a half, the entire trip, including lunch and medicine and the taxi was $35 and it was impeccable care. Now that was a major city in India, that was in Chennai. So you wouldn't get that if you're lost in a rural part. But I also think that we frankly over exaggerate our own health care and the skills that we have. And I think we oftentimes assume that they don't have decent health care in other countries. You know, I mean, to be fair, if you get into a car accident in Burma, Cambodia or Laos, you're not going to a hospital there. They're going to send you to Thailand because that's the other place that can give you real medical care. So there is certainly Some inherent risk medically, when you're going to a lot of these places. But with the Internet, with, you know, flights that are constantly available, barring a catastrophic incident, if I break a leg or something like that, I can hop on a. I can hop on a plane. That's what travel insurance is for. There's evacuation insurance. It's an amazing thing. I was actually, I was in Greece last year and I had some sort of a throat soreness and actually sent a photo of my throat, which is an odd photo to send, to my doctor here in the US and he responded and told me what prescriptions to get. I went to the pharmacy because it's Greece. They were closed for five hours, I think, during the middle of the day for their standard nap. Went back at, I think, 5 o' clock and asked for that prescription. They didn't have that, but they had a couple others. I emailed my doctor back, he told me which one to get, good to go and solved. And so the Internet allows us. It makes the world a smaller place and it allows us to be a little more adventurous. I didn't have to set aside two days to try to track down a Greek doctor and all that just for standard antibiotics. So it's a pretty neat thing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I like this idea of self reliance because although I like safety, I mean, obviously I'm a doctor and, you know, I like things that are safe, but I think sometimes it causes us to feel a false sense of security and that if you really believe that everything around you is safe, then maybe you don't pay as close attention as you probably should.

Jeff Roberts:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I think about this with my children, my older children who travel especially, that I want them to feel safe, but I also want them to be aware.

Jeff Roberts:

Yeah, yeah, well. And I mean, you know, if we look at sort of the obesity epidemic, you know, you can sit at home safely in your living room and slowly shorten your lifespan by eating too much. So you can shorten your lifespan a whole lot of ways. I would rather potentially risk shortening my life span by seeing the world and by experiencing new things. And I've been to a lot of places and I have, knock on wood, have not even had really any close calls.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you've been from Boston to Burma to Budapest.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You've talked about Greece, you've talked about Mount Kilimanjaro.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What are some of your favorites?

Jeff Roberts:

The default, I usually say, would be India and Burma were my two favorites. India, because it's such a huge country, English is spoken sort of everywhere. They've got, I believe it's hundreds of languages. I know it's at least 200 languages yet because of English colonization still, English is the common bond for language. So it's accessible even when you go to the really remote places. And because you hop in a car or a train for four hours and it feels like you're in a new country. Because culturally it's so different in different regions. Burma would be the other favorite of mine just because, frankly, for a long time I think still our government says do not go there because if something happens to you, we can't help. And so you have to play it extra safe and you have to be careful who you talk to and be careful what you say. I'm a very politically minded person. Person. But I definitely did not talk politics in Burma, both for my own safety, but also for the safety of anyone I talk to. I don't want to get anyone else in trouble, any of the locals in trouble. But, you know, I was riding home one day from a temple, sitting in a bicycle rickshaw, and there the passenger seat is sidecar of the bicycle. And so the guy is bicycling along. He looks over to me and he says, do you think we've really been on the moon? And I mean, this is an amazing conversation, an amazing question to have, and a question that you wouldn't have if you're sort of on the backpacker circuit of Thailand. I think I've been to Thailand. I enjoy that backpacker circuit. But having sort of these amazing, authentic conversations with somebody who is apparently as curious as I am in the middle of sort of nowhere, it's just such an amazing, such an amazing opportunity. So I really enjoy that. On the flip side of those two, Japan is right up there for me as well. I'm actually headed back to Japan in a week. Japan is interesting in a completely different way. In that case, culturally, it is so different from the US there's not a whole lot of English spoken. I've never been so lost in my life as the times I've spent in Japan. But that's, you know, that's the fun in it too. And while I usually try to travel in the developing world or whatever else, frankly, for budget reasons, Japan is, you know, is the opposite of that. But it can still be done cheaply. And that makes it, that adds a level of adventure to it as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As someone who's actually been to so many different places. What do you think when you see the translations of whatever this is back in the United States? Does that make sense. Like if you, if you've actually been to Mexico and you've been in a place that serves authentic Mexican food or authentic, has authentic Mexican tapestries, for example, when you come back to the United States and you see our translations of it,

Jeff Roberts:

You know, it's interesting. I think it's funny if you pass Mexicali Blues here in Portland, it's an entire store full of things that are sold in India and things like that. It's funny to see. Some people would call it cultural appropriation and some people think that's, that's inherently a bad thing. I enjoy the fact that we are, we as in the global community are bringing think goods and culture and food from India, from Mexico, from wherever. Because I think it allows people who are here in Maine to be able to experience those places without having to leave Maine. It's not always easy to leave Maine. Whether it's the cost of a plane ticket or whether it's, you know, a job schedule or whether it's family or friends, you know, a lot of people depend on each other. So it can be tough to leave to go to these places. So I think it's great that, that they have it, you know, that it all sort of thanks to globalization, which is very much a double edged sword. It's really neat to be able to experience bits of India and Mexico or really every country. I mean, you know, you can get great Burmese food in New York. It's a lot quicker car ride than it is a flight to Burma.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Jeff, I know we can see your work in upcoming issues of Maine magazine Maine Home Design. I think you have quite a lot of stuff that's on the horizon this summer. What about other work that you've done? How could people find you?

Jeff Roberts:

So I've got a few different websites. My architecture, food and product work is all on jeffrobertsimaging.com my fashion and beauty work is on jeffrobertsphoto.com and my travel photography work is on eyeballglobal.com so a few different websites, sort of too much to keep track of. And then, and then there's nerdy old instagram, which is instagram.com ephrobertsphoto well, I

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

appreciate your willingness to show us all the parts of the world that not everybody gets a chance to visit. Maybe someday I'll go hang out in Assam and hang out with the monkeys at the other part of India. But I'm also very grateful that you bring your eye back here to Maine and you make it available to the people that read our magazines and I appreciate your taking the time to talk with us today. We've been speaking with Jeff Roberts who has worked as a photographer internationally from

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Boston to Burma to Budapest.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thanks for coming in.

Jeff Roberts:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Home Design, Old Port Magazine to work with a number of very talented photographers and one of them is Trent Bell. Trent is a Maine based photographer originally from Virginia.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Bell has a Master's in Architecture from

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Andrews University and practiced architecture until he

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

realized he was much better suited to photography and founded Trent Bell Photography. If Bell is not with his wife Amber and two sons, you will find

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

him either working or surfing. Thanks for coming in.

Trent Bell:

Absolutely.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So I'm kind of interested in this morphing over from architecture to photography because while they're both kind of visual, I've interviewed photographers and I've interviewed architects and the mindset seems a little different.

Trent Bell:

That's probably why I didn't last as an architect. I really enjoyed the schooling of architecture. It was very interesting for me to go through high school and everything else and be a very average unengaged student and then to try going at being pre med for a while. Didn't work out very well. I actually applied myself and could only really get by with about Bs, low Bs and I realized that trying to go pre med or dental would have been an uphill battle and a friend of mine, Caleb Johnson, was going through architecture school and that really intrigued me and when I went into that it was just like wow, this is really great being creative and thinking in this manner, learning how things go together and why things and the built environment, the designed environment works, that was really interesting to me and I loved the schooling of it. But then my personality with the day to day workings of actually running a practice came up a little short. Honestly I just wasn't a great. I didn't have a high tolerance for going to the same place every day at the same desk. And you know, the stick to itiveness that's required for making it through all those details and dealing with clients from for such a long period of time, you know, it was wearing me thin. And I kind of realized I have one life and to do this every day in a way that just doesn't fit. Making me happy was something that was very difficult to deal with. And to make the choice to walk away from so much education and then three years of professional investment, starting a business with a friend afterwards was a hard point and decision to come to. But it has worked out very well for me, luckily.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how many years ago did you make that decision?

Trent Bell:

It would have been about 10 years ago, probably to switch or to jump ship and then try and figure out what I was going to do because I really had no plan. And luckily at the time we didn't have any children and my wife was working full time. So I had the luxury of putting everything I could into starting a business. I was going to just start doing property development and you know, buying, flipping houses. This is when the market was spiking. And then a friend of mine who's a commercial photographer out in California suggested why don't you try architectural photography. I'd been interested in photography in the past, but the all the complications with actual darkroom work and chemicals and everything else just wasn't up my alley at all. But where photography came into the digital realm and I'm such a gadget kind of geek, you know, with everything else that's kind of nerdy, but I really get into that. It started to combine this very visually creative aesthetic world with a very quick turnaround capability that satisfied my attention span and combined it with all this technical gadgetry. It just kind of came together for me and I just kind of jumped into it and here I am. So I lucked out somehow. But

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it is, I think that in some ways, well, some would say lock, some would say being open to the circumstance, I don't, I don't really know, but I think one of the challenges that I often see is that people feel like they have to do something because they need to Follow a pattern that everybody else follows that they need to be good. Say you wanted to do pre med, for example, you need to be good like all the other pre med students. Your mind needs to work like their minds.

Trent Bell:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And to be open to finding something that is a good fit for the way that you look at the world, the way that you process things intellectually, that. That requires some kind of a leap of faith in a way.

Trent Bell:

Yeah. It is very interesting to me to discover myself, my own abilities and value to what I can contribute, how I can learn, how I can process and how that's valuable to other people and to come to terms to that eventually. I was raised in a family that was much more so culturally focused around professions like doctor, teacher, pastor, nurse, things that are direct interaction with people. And it was never directly implied or anything else. I was just kind of a cultural like, typical thing. And to really think that I could even go into architecture was kind of a little bit outside the norm. But then to switch over to then say, I'm gonna pay for my house off of taking pretty pictures. That was, you know, when I, when I eventually told my dad, like, yeah, I'm gonna become a photographer. Even when I look back on that now, I'm a little like, what on earth was I thinking? But even at the time, his, you know, honest reaction was just, what, you can't make money at that. And, you know, he was in no way trying to discourage me or anything else. It was just his like, gut reaction of, there's no money in that. You can't do that. You're not going to be able to make your house payments. You know, you guys are going to be in the poor house, you're going to be a starving artist. And just to, to have a wife for one that she never once questioned me, never once asked, you know, are you going to get a weekend job? Are you going to. You know, it was looking back, I have a hard time picturing, you know, how she could have had so much confidence in me to make these, this work, you know, because if I were her, I never would have. But for some reason she was, has always been supportive in that way. As long as we're not in debt, she kind of is just do whatever you want. So that's a bit of a luxury on my part. But yeah, a bit of a tangent there went off on, I guess.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But no, I think it's an important tangent. I think that when you aren't happy in what you're doing or it just doesn't feel like the right fit. It's just crucial to have somebody else who says that's okay, you know, we'll figure this out. And as long as we've got some basic foundation of security, we can make this work.

Trent Bell:

Right.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Because not everybody does have that.

Trent Bell:

Yeah. And coming to that decision point, it is very difficult to step outside of that norm. I mean, we were in no financial terrible position because my wife was, was working full time as a physical therapist and we didn't have kids. But to step away from, to make that choice, to say this really isn't working for me. I mean, to step away from this, you know, master's degree in architecture and three years of trying to start a business, you know, was, was very difficult, very, very painful in many ways. But I, I knew deep down that it, something had to change and somehow ended up here. I haven't quite fully digested. I'm always kind of looking forward of how to move forward. So I'm not really as much always looking back and wondering exactly why it worked, but.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, I mean, the fact that you and I are sitting here having this conversation should be evidence to people who listen to the show that I kind of understand what you're talking about. I mean, I'm trained as a physician. My job is a physician. So most people would say you need to go be a physician because that's how people make their car payments. Right. And their mortgages. But I, you know, being having a radio show or writing for the magazines, I mean, those are just also equally important. You know, to be able to say, it's okay, I can be a doctor, but I can also be this. Or I can do something a little bit different. I don't have to follow the path that other people believe is the one that makes the most sense.

Trent Bell:

Yeah, it is interesting. Like I've heard a lot of people discuss that the, I mean like your education, what it can apply to as far as the total well being of someone, you obviously have a huge background then in understanding the human body and then how it translates into possibly mental well being, spiritual well being and everything else. You know, the architectural background has a huge amount of, of influence on why I've been able to make my house payments as a photographer, you know, to have that aesthetic training and to approach the subject matter that I most typically work with is a huge, you know, one informs the other.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So yeah, that's actually a really good point and that it's not wasted. It's not like, you know, yeah, your master's in architecture was wasted. When you became a photographer, it just was used in a different way.

Trent Bell:

Right. A lot of people email me and ask me, well, I'm thinking about being a photographer. What's your advice? And I usually respond to people saying, get to know really well the subject that you want to shoot that you're interested in. I mean, if it's shooting cars, I'd almost say get more of an education in cars than in photography. I have no training whatsoever in photography other than what Jet Williams has taught me, a good friend of mine, and an immense amount of stuff that Irvin Serrano taught me. An incredible photographer who I owe a lot of thanks to for everything that he shared with me. But knowing your subjects that you're shooting is going to give you that ability to translate your aesthetic and mental voice through imagery and communicate that. Whereas if you're so focused on just the technical aspects of things and getting this image perfect, I mean, you can look through a ton of my image and see a lot of technical imperfections. But I think more often the thing that sings the most and connects most with people is going to be the emotion communicated through composition and lighting primarily. So I would, you know, I always tell people, really understand your subject and then, you know, composition and lighting and then the technical aspect, really.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Irvin Serrano is someone who has worked with the magazines also quite a lot and he does do beautiful work. And the fact that he's here, as are a lot of other really talented artists, photographers of. And artists of other sorts here in Maine, I mean, it seems like such an interesting opportunity that we would all come to this state that in many places is quite rural, but the creativity, the talent that we have right here. Has that surprised you?

Trent Bell:

No, I look at it as. I think there's a high percentage of creatives will be fairly introverted and will want to, for one, be in a place where they can find peace and time to be reflective and space to be reflective and also want that somewhat of a blank slate kind of atmosphere that. I mean, artists purchase blank canvas, not paintings. You know, people with money that appreciate what artists do, purchase what they do. And, you know, that's a lot of what attracted me to Biddeford is that it's, you know, it's more so a blank slate. And Maine to a large degree is a blank slate. But the creative atmosphere in Maine and the amount of people I've seen move here from away is, you know, vastly changed in the last decade, you know, decade and a half since I've been here about. And that doesn't really surprise me just because of my mentality and why I am here and why I would think others are here. You know, it seems like a place of opportunity, whereas if you're thinking of it purely as a business place, I mean, I would think Kevin's kind of proved that wrong. Where he came here from a. I think he was from Massachusetts somewhere, but saw an opportunity in a state that's one of the worst in the country to do business in, supposedly. But you know, I, I mean, the people that run the Indian restaurant in Biddeford, he came here on a lottery visa. Lottery from Pakistan or. No, from India. And he arrived in New York with $20 in his pocket and now is in Maine and owns three restaurants. How can you tell me. And he's, he's. He owns a really nice house in Saco, drives a really nice car, owns three profitable, very profitable businesses. You know, how can you tell me that Maine's a bad place to do business when someone with $20 and a work ethic now owns a very nice house, very nice guy? You know, so it's all in your state of mind. And I think people are attracted to Maine because there's opportunity which if you're going to New York City, you're going to be paying these ridiculous prices for everything. And you know, as a creative, I own a huge amount of my own gear and everything else largely due to not having to pay huge amounts for studio fees, living fee, you know, everything which allows me to do self projects that are far more creative and, you know, fund them myself to a degree. It allows me more of that creative freedom. I'm kind of living in much more of a blank slate for creativity than someone who's saddled with themselves with trying to live in New York City where there might be a lot of work going on, but it's other people's ideas that they're servicing. Whereas I have the ability a little more so maybe to service my own ideas and my own creativity outside of the commercial work that I do.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're right that Kevin Thomas, who originally actually is from Arista county and then moved to Massachusetts and then came back, you're right that he saw kind of a space to start these magazines along with his co owner Susan Grisanti. And he has been very successful. When I think other people have kind of doubted that that would be so sometimes I think that people have a hard time if they can't picture what might be. They have a hard time supporting a possibility.

Trent Bell:

Oh yeah. I mean, and especially to start when they did with the whole digital revolution really, of ending print essentially to a large degree and to still have been successful at it with avant garde business practices and everything else, if that's the right word, has, you know, made a name for himself, made a huge brand in Maine, has, you know, added to the architectural design community and benefited that part of the community to a huge degree. I know. So it, you know, it's all about fresh perspective and seeing the opportunity and, you know, there's a lot of pitfalls and different ways you can do that and offend people and make people like you and everything else. But, you know, I mean, it's here and it. And it's helping a lot of people and a lot of the Maine economy at the same time. So, you know, it's different people's perspective and opportunity. So

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

talk to me about some of the projects that you do that really are your. Your projects, the ones that people don't hire you for, but that you really believe strongly in yourself.

Trent Bell:

I shared a studio space with Irvin Serrano for a little while and he did a really great project on,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I

Trent Bell:

believe, women that were going through cancer. And it was a portrait series. And I just read a lot on, on how personal projects are just good for your own business to do. So I kept thinking, you know, I really got to do something like this. And then I had a friend that was convicted of a crime and sentenced to about 36 years in prison. And that sat on my mind for quite some time. And I just kept thinking about it because we were very similar growing up, all the same interests and everything else. He wasn't going to be able to be with his kids anymore. They were going to be who knows how old by the time he got out. Everything else and that kind of just sat on me and made me reflect a lot on my own life and how things could have been different, possibly. But why, when we were so similar, why are they so different? My studio manager and I sat down to try and conc. Conceive an idea for a personal project. And this was on my mind. So I said, hey, why don't we do a thing, you know, portraits of prison inmates? And you know, he was kind of, how are you going to get access to these guys? This is ridiculous. And I just kind of, you know, like, it'll happen. Don't worry about it. But at the same time, we knew that, you know, just portraits are going to be engaging, but they're not going to be a huge, you know, it's just going to be a portrait. So we talked some more about it and came up with the idea of having them write a handwritten letter to their younger self and then putting that handwritten letter around their portrait. And it's been an incredible. It's been an incredible thing to see still media connect individuals of such different background, to watch people stand in front of these and kind of take in the inmate's letter, which is. You're basically at that point eavesdropping, because the letter is written to the younger inmate, not you, but you're there reading it, looking at their portrait, eavesdropping with their voice in your head. But it was. It was really an extension of wanting to try and do something that could without really any other financial bias, other than doing something that was good for exposure and everything else, which it has turned out to be in that way. But to really do a project that focused directly on human issues, social issues. And I was really inspired by how that connected with people. And it's really sparked a lot more of that desire in me to continue to focus on projects like that. Last summer, we did a video project. One of Kevin's sons actually interned with us and helped us a lot on that. But it was around a lot of the homeless and panhandling individuals that you'll see around Portland. We interviewed about 17 individuals and a couple and a administrative person over at Preble street. And we've had all that footage transcribed, and we're kind of sitting through it right now, making a narrative out of it, trying to figure out what story is there. Hopefully going to get Governor LePage to sit down for an interview to give his two cents on that. And so kind of focusing on these type of more emotional social issues is kind of where I'm going with it personally. We're also the same thing we did with prison incident inmates. We're also doing with individuals the same treatment as far as a portrait and a letter to their younger self ensconced around them. We're doing this with individuals that have gone from being atheists to now belief in a deity, and also individuals that have gone from belief in a deity to atheist. So we'll be able to see this very transitional point in people's lives where they've really had this transition and belief. I. I personally have experienced a pretty bad disillusion, if that's the right word of my faith, in the past eight years, probably. And this is the natural way, I guess, for me to explore this, is to interact with others that have had a similar transition at Least both ways because I'm pretty much stuck right in the middle. We're also doing this same reflect project treatment to individuals that know they're about to die. We've had about four participants so far. As you can imagine, it's not easy to convince someone on their deathbed to, hey, sit for a portrait and write us a letter. But the ones we've been able to get to contribute so far have been extremely moving and very valuable. So it's going to take some time, but. But I think in the long run that's going to be. Both of those are going to be really great projects. The other big one we're working on right now is kind of another documentary around my own experience of now turning 40 here in about a month and an impulsive purchase of a 1980s Toyota van on the other side of the country in the ensuing road trip home. Interviewing individuals that can answer questions that I now have to the dissolution of my own faith. So interviewing big cheeses in the Jewish community, Mormon community, atheist community, Satanist community, scientists around evolution, human behavioralists, and then just the adventure of a road trip and interacting with just the common people you. You'd bounce stuff off of. So that's going to be happening this summer. That's a really big project that we're working on, finding different funding and everything for and outlets for. So it'll be exciting.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have a lot going on.

Trent Bell:

A lot going on. I have to try and figure out how to make money in there somewhere too, so see how that goes.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It seems like you'll. Seems like there'll be something will come through. I'm just guessing on this one.

Trent Bell:

Okay, good.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So far it's worked out all right though so far. Yeah. We've been speaking with Trent Bell, who is a main base photographer. Trent, how do people find out more about the work that you do?

Trent Bell:

Just going to trentbell.com or Instagram or trentbellphotography or our Facebook page. I think we're on Twitter, but I just really copy everything that I put on Instagram to Twitter and Facebook so.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, however people find you, I encourage them to do so. You're doing some great work not only for the magazines for Kevin Thomas and Susan Grison, but also it sounds like these other projects are pretty great and I wish you all the best. And thanks for coming in and talking to us today.

Trent Bell:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to Love Maine radio show number 245, Maine Photographers. Our guests have included Jeff Roberts and Trent Bell. Follow me on Twitter as DrLisa and see my running travel, food and wellness photos as bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Bellio. I hope that you have enjoyed our Maine Photographers Show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful Love Maine

[Unidentified voice]:

Where I've been I can't say why would you want to know what happened anyway Even though I'm here today it's not enough for you to hear the words I say when you ask me I say la la la When I answer you say la la la la la don't tell me you don't want to hear the ins and outs My way of bouncing How I spend my time without you La la. Who is it and is it real? Will I walk away if you change how you feel? Believe you me I'd rather be

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

in

[Unidentified voice]:

O 4096 than here in 103 and when you ask me I say la la la When I answer you say la la la la la don't tell me you don't want to know the ins and outs My whereabouts and how I spend my time without you La la la.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Sa.

[Unidentified voice]:

Don't tell me you don't want to know the ins and outs My whereabouts and how I spend my time without you La la la so why am I spending time without you La la la.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

SA. Sam.