In their March 2022 edition, Down East magazine published an article by Jennifer Finney Boylan about our son, Alec Hartman, and his photography. And, through the end of April, the Vassalboro Library is hosting an exhibit featuring some Maine images by Alec, who passed away in 2019. Many more of his pictures can be seen at www.alecphoto.com.

Both his father, Peter Nutting, and I are grateful to Jenny and the Down East staff for this remarkable article. In her writing, Jenny managed to capture a little of Alec’s soul, as well as a little of ours as Alec’s parents. As she mentioned in her article, having a child with difficulties as well as genius is a rare gift; we knew that being different often means being on a higher level than we ordinary people.

Alec’s photography shows us the extraordinary beauty in everyday objects because he saw the world very differently. I believe this is a consequence of his kind of Asperger’s, which gave him insight that the rest of us do not have. Early on, Alec figured out that other people could not see what he saw, so he directed his efforts into correcting our blindness. His pictures of animals are perhaps even more revealing than his landscapes, and the animals knew it. He was a whisperer to whom animals responded with trust and friendship.

My favorite video of Alec’s came from a trip he made to a remote spot in the Great North Woods where he found a doe and her fawn one spring. He sat down with his camera recording at his side as the fawn danced up onto his lap and started licking his face while the doe peacefully grazed nearby. They recognized one of their own — a soul like theirs that they could understand. Moose, rabbits, grizzly bears, sheep, and birds all came to him, and he caught their images in his lens.

On another trip, Alec and I were in Washington, D.C., walking on the National Mall when he spotted a squirrel in a tree. He stopped to take a picture, and the squirrel came down out of the tree and over to him. Alec sat down on the path, and the squirrel climbed up on his lap and looked Alec in the eye. Then the squirrel got back on the path and laid down spread-eagle in front of him. He went back and forth from Alec’s lap to the path a few times, while Alec took pictures and a video. A jogger running by said calmly, “That is the strangest squirrel behavior I have ever seen.”

Alec’s landscapes are often eye-openers. One day when he was about ten, we were driving down the road and he yelled, “Stop! Stop!” I slammed on the brakes and pulled over to see what was wrong. Alec jumped out of the car with his ever-present camera and started snapping pictures. I couldn’t figure out what he was seeing. We were next to a farmer’s empty field, and all I saw were a few trees in the distance. After a few minutes, he climbed back into the car and showed me the viewfinder. I gaped at the gorgeous image (Sunset Panorama) and had to look out the window to confirm to my senses that the image was actually there. Being Alec’s mother was a learning experience.

“I can always recognize Alec’s pictures,” a friend of mine once told me. “They tell a story.” She was looking at a collection of photos taken by a variety of photographers, and she easily identified which were his.

Peter and I are immeasurably grateful to Down East, Jenny Boylan, and the Vassalboro Public Library for providing this opportunity for more people to get to know a little about Alec and his genius.

Charlie Hartman was the co-owner of the Iron Horse Bookstore in Waterville, and she resides in Vassalboro.

 

 

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