Acts of Seeing: Robinson's Island

Photo by John MacDougall

I took this picture a few days ago on Robinson’s Island – one of my favorite places. I biked there from our home in Stanhope. There’s a beautiful trail that takes you there across marsh, along dunes, until you get to the island, which is connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway. No vehicles are allowed, just walkers and cyclists. The day I was there, I had the place to myself. The beach on the north side of the island was strewn with wrecked lobster traps – one of my favorite camera subjects. They’re like found sculptures made of wood, net, and rope – smashed by the waves into unique configurations. They don’t last. The tide comes in, moves them around on the rocks, and breaks them apart. I see them as symbols. This is the way life goes. 

Acts of Seeing: Achill Island

Achill Island, 2024 (Photo by John MacDougall)

September 19, 2024, Lorna and I were biking Achill Island, on Ireland’s west coast. I love the receding perspective of this shot – down the ribbon of old country road to the graveyard way in the distance. If you look closely, you can see Lorna on her bike just past the green tractor on the left. I love everything about this picture – the charcoal gray road, the motley greens of the trees and bushes, the canted telephone pole, the white specks of the gravestones, the island's bare mountain spine showing through its worn olive green carpet, the pure blue sky. It’s a capsule of an exhilarating moment of an exhilarating day – one of the best of my life. Achill is a photographer’s dream. 

Nunavut Day

Arctic Bay, 2006 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Today is Nunavut Day, a public holiday celebrated every July 9 in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It marks the anniversary of the 1993 passage of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. The day celebrates Inuit self-determination, culture, and tradition.  

Lorna and I lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for nine years (2000 – 2009). They were among the best years of our lives – so different from what we’d experienced previously, living in Prince Edward Island. I took countless pictures while we were there – not only of Iqaluit, but of many of the other Nunavut communities that I had the privilege of visiting in my work with Qikiqtani Inuit Association. 

Here’s a half dozen of my favorite Nunavut photos – my way of paying tribute to this magnificent land and the great people who live there. 

Sylvia Grinnell River, 2007 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Kimmirut, 2007 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Iqaluit, 2008 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Rankin Inlet, 2006 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Hall Beach, 2005 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Arctic Bay, 2006 (Photo by John MacDougall)

Acts of Seeing: Purple Lupins

Photo by John MacDougall

Yesterday I biked to Robinson's Island. It’s about fifteen kilometers from our place in Stanhope. I went along Gulf Shore Way through Prince Edward Island National Park. Beautiful day, sunny, 15°. I biked a gravel path that circles the island. I saw lots of wildflowers – lupins, wild roses, daisies, buttercups, devil's paintbrushes. There was an abundance of lupins – purple, pink, and white. I stopped at my favorite lookout on the island’s north shore. Again, lots of lupins. I took this shot, showing lupins, crumbling bank, beach, and driftwood. I found a blue-and-yellow lobster buoy on the beach in near mint condition. I took it back with me and added it to my collection. 

Acts of Seeing: Comacchio

John MacDougall, Comacchio (2023)

One of my favorite places in the world is Comacchio, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. There’s a path that goes along the lagoon there that affords views of some of the most arresting fishing shacks I’ve ever seen. This one, for example, so rickety-looking, ramshackle, and time-worn. Yet, so enduring, too. The vivid dabs of red of the wild poppy blossoms make the picture. I love the light – the glorious Italian saltwater sunlight! I wish I were there now. 

Acts of Seeing: Galp

Photo by John MacDougall

I love gas station shots. Maybe because I used to work in one. There are some famous ones by Garry Winogrand, Stephen Shore, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Hopper. I took this one a couple of months ago in Belém, Portugal. In the background, on the left, you can see the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos). That was our destination that day, biking from Lisbon’s Parque das Nações along the waterfront. What a trail! One of the most stimulating I’ve ever traveled. Look at that sky! Pure Windex blue.    

Acts of Seeing: Mayflowers

Photo by John MacDougall

A little bouquet of mayflowers – the first of the year. Lorna and I picked them yesterday. The scent is faint, but unmistakably mayflower, sweet and lovely, quintessence of spring. I love the splotched, rusty, nibbled leaves. Such a tough, hardy shrub, it thrives in that in-between season of wet ground, cold rain, and pale sunshine.  

Acts of Seeing: Fuseta

Photo by John MacDougall

I love graffiti. I’m always on the lookout for it when I’m cycling. A few weeks ago, when I was in Portugal, I saw this work on the side of an old garage near the town of Fuseta. It stopped me in my tracks. I love the images of the horse and cacti. It’s like a scene from a spaghetti western. The colors are ravishing: marsala, ochre, lavender, orange, tan, hints of pale blue. That old armchair with the deep russet cushion is part of it, as are the other mysterious objects. The brick pattern, the flecked paint. It’s an amazing assemblage! My eyes devoured it. 

Acts of Seeing: Sanirajak

Photo by John MacDougall

May 9, 2008, I was in the Inuit hamlet of Sanirajak, on the shore of Foxe Basin in Nunavut. I took a lot of pictures. I like this one for its content. There’s a lot going on here: three kids, three snowmobiles, a husky pup tied to a hockey stick stuck in the snow, the long runners of a wooden sled, a polar bear skin stretched on a wooden frame, leaning against the house. I love the red jacket of the kid running in the foreground, and the metallic red, green, and blue of the snow machines, and the yellow boots of the little kid looking down at the pup. But what makes the picture, for me, at least, is that magnificent polar bear skin drying in the arctic air, a reminder that this is wild country where the polar bear still roams. 

Acts of Seeing: Almond Tree

Photo by John MacDougall

January 29, 2024, we were cycling in Portugal. I came around a bend and there was this beautiful old almond tree in full frothy blossom. At least I think it’s an almond tree. Please tell me if it isn’t. I want to know. I love the twisted black trunk. Like great old poets and great old painters and great old movie directors, it’s still producing beauty. What a wonderful day that was! See that cyclist on the road in the distance? That’s Lorna, leading the way, as usual, while I straggle behind, stopping to savor the views and take pictures. 

Acts of Seeing: Campbell's Pond

Photo by John MacDougall

This is a photo of Campbell’s Pond that I took recently. I love this area – the golden reeds and rushes, the tranquility. It’s part of Prince Edward Island National Park, near Dalvay Lake, not too far from where Lorna and I live. Can the camera catch a feeling? I think so. You have to work at it. I took at least a dozen shots of the pond that day. This one was the last in the series. As soon as I took it, I knew it was the one that came closest to expressing my reverence for the place. 

Acts of Seeing: Middelburg

John MacDougall, Middelburg (2025)

I took a ton of pictures on our recent trip to the Netherlands. It’s a very photogenic country. I love Dutch canals, Dutch architecture, and Dutch boats. This photo contains all three of those ingredients. The location is Middelburg, one of my favorite Dutch cities. I love the russet color of the boat and the way it matches the door of the building on the far left. Those buildings, with their tall, white window frames and auburn roof tiles – so beautiful! The whole scene is beautiful. I wish I was back there, cycling along the canal, looking, looking, looking. 

Taking a Break

Photo by John MacDougall

This evening, Lorna, our grandson, Will, and I fly to the Netherlands to do some cycling. We’ll be gone two weeks. I’m taking Ian Frazier's The Fish's Eye (2002) with me. I’ll post my review when I return. The New Yorker & Me will resume on or about September 20th. 

Acts of Seeing: Trinity

Photo by John MacDougall

May 18, 2012, a brilliant day in Trinity, Newfoundland. Walking around this spruced-up, freshly painted fishing village, I felt like I was in a movie set of a fishing village. There was hardly anyone around. The sun was shining through a spattering of white clouds. The light was clear as could be. I love those white picket fences. There are four of them – two in the foreground, and two farther down the street. I love the bundle of wooden poles leaning against the shed. I love the dab of red on the belfry of the church steeple. Look behind the church. You can see a tiny slice of sea. 

Acts of Seeing: Iqaluit

Photo by John MacDougall

A friend from Iqaluit recently visited us here in Stanhope. Her presence took me back twenty years to my own Iqaluit days, when I roamed the town, hunting for interesting images. One of my favorite walks was along the beach, where I could look at one of my favorite Arctic things – Arctic canoes. I took countless pictures of them. This one, for example, dated March 30, 2008. I love the curved bow and the dark blue-green with black trim and the orange rope and the chunk of snow sitting on top. This canoe is just biding its time, waiting for summer, when it can go down the bay.    

Acts of Seeing: Via Claudia Augusta

Photo by John MacDougall

I took this May 16, 2025, on the Via Claudia Augusta cycle route between Salerno and Trento. It’s one of the most beautiful trails I’ve ever biked. It takes you through the Adige River valley, filled with acres and acres of apple orchards and green vineyards. The sky was blue; the sun was shining. We came upon this old red wagon piled with dead twigs and branches. What a great subject! ! Unposed, unembellished, unimpeachably real – the Ding an sich, the thing in itself.    

Acts of Seeing: Daffodil

Photo by John MacDougall

Many years ago, I randomly planted a bunch of daffodil bulbs on our property, including in the woods and along the driveway. This one popped up a couple of days ago, its yellow harmonizing with the colors of my old lobster buoy collection. I don’t do anything to nurture the daffodils. They’re completely on their own. Yet every May they manage to appear, pushing up through the undergrowth to shout hello, it’s spring. 

Acts of Seeing: John Arch's Pond

John Arch's Pond (Photo by John MacDougall)

This is a photo of one my favorite places – John Arch’s Pond, Prince Edward Island National Park, Canada. I took it a couple of months ago. The pond is not far from our home. Lorna and I walk or bike by it almost every day. The picture could be called “Cattails in Winter.” I love cattails with their brown furry spikes. Those leaning dead spruce in the background on the left were blown down by Hurricane Fiona in 2022. Farther in the background are the dunes that mark the northern edge of the pond. Beyond the dunes is the beach and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

Acts of Seeing: Praia de Tavira

Photo by John MacDougall

Praia de Tavira, Portugal, February 6, 2024. We came out onto the magnificent beach, and there she was to greet us: fish net plumage, mannequin legs, one lime green high heel shoe, shiny CD eye, mesh crab pot head and beak, and spiky green reed hair. The coolest beach sculpture I’d ever seen. I took her picture, the intense blue Portuguese sky showing through her fine mesh basket head. I thought of you, Picasso. 

Acts of Seeing: Grado

Grado, June 18, 2023 (Photo by John MacDougall)

I have a taste for boats and reflections. Both elements coalesce in this shot, taken one sunny morning in Grado, Italy. Lorna and I were biking around town, seeing what there was to see. The fishing boat is a beauty – sleek contour, great white-green-and-blue paint job. But it’s the foreground, with its gorgeous liquid reflection, blending the colors of the boat and the apartment buildings behind, that makes this picture one of my favorites.