Dock Square

Author's Comments

Dock Square in August is not where I would send anyone looking for solitude. The square is busy, the parking is a small ordeal, and the shops have the particular cheerful density of a New England village in high season. But there is a reason the place has been photographed for two centuries, and it has to do with the bridge. Stand on the arched span over the Kennebunk River in late afternoon, around four or five, when the light begins to come in low from the west. Upstream, the river fills with moored boats and the white clapboard buildings catch warm light against the water. Downstream, the river opens toward the ocean and the mood shifts entirely. The same bridge gives you two completely different photographs depending on which way you turn. I find the building details more interesting than the wide shots most visitors make. The brick and clapboard façades around the square have been working buildings for a long time, and they wear it. Window frames, hand-painted signs, the particular grey of cedar shingles weathered by salt air. These read best in side light, which the late afternoon delivers. Come in September if you can. The crowds thin noticeably after Labor Day, the boats are still in, and the light has begun its autumn turn toward something longer and more golden. The square earns its reputation in those weeks more than in the height of summer, when everything is a little too bright and a little too full.

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