When Neil Baker was tossing around possible titles for his recently published book of photographic impressions of Provincetown, he thought, “Stop and Smell the Light.” “Too corny,’ his wife said. He agreed, but in choosing “The Quality of Light,” Baker kept his eye on the sunrises and sunsets that shape the light on this tiny spit of land at the tip of Cape Cod. Geography plays a large role in reflecting the light as the town is tucked between Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay. For almost 14 years Neil, his wife Gail and their daughter Maisy have rented a house on the beach in Provincetown, an excursion they initiated when friends introduced them to the resort town. Neil grew up in Newton, a suburb of Boston, and was familiar with East Coast beaches, the tufted sand dunes and long, shallow tides. “It’s a navigable place to be,” Neil says, explaining that when the family is there, not in Pacific Palisades, they get around on foot or by bicycle. “When you’re walking down the street early in the morning, not only are you seeing and feeling things, but you’re smelling things.” Baker’s large-format photos reflect this slowed pace that lends itself to quiet observation and attention to the subtle changes of the seasons. Observed from a distance, the photos could be watercolors, washed in an endless spectrum of gray and green, with the unexpected colors of manmade objects caught by the lens. Baker still uses the Nikon 8200 manually operated zoom he bought almost 40 years ago. He says that the zoom captures the detail he was looking for, but the size and weight of the lens outlived two Nikon camera bodies. ‘This lens enables me to look through the aperture and frame the picture in the way I want. When it’s printed, 4×6, and it represents what I want, I’m happy.’ Baker confesses to being a Luddite when it comes to technology. He owns a basic cell phone without the camera, so he eschews all electronic manipulation of photos as well. He has the film negatives scanned in high definition and put on a CD. ‘When I need a large print, I can do it. I’ve gone as large as 30×40 for posters of my prints, and some of these shots cry for large format.’ Although Baker has no immediate plans to continue his chronicle of Provincetown, he has begun to think about observing his own community more closely. ‘Life goes by pretty quickly,’ he says. ‘Even on my street Oracle Place, where there is a wonderful view and deer on the street. I’m now thinking about how wonderful it is to live here or in Santa Monica and I should take my bike and do the same thing I’ve done on our summer vacation.’ Baker studied economics in college, but says that he always wanted to work with his father, which is what he did, and ended up working in the same industry. He designs automated plants for factories that do electroplating. He moved to Los Angeles 20 years ago and relocated to Pacific Palisades in 1990, the year he and his wife, Gail Strickland’an actress with many Google listings’were married. ‘For years I have been taking pictures. The wall along the hallway to our master bedroom is lined with them,’ Baker says, adding that a gallery in Provincetown exhibited works from the current collection in mid-August. Now trying to catch up after a month away, Baker looks forward to next summer in Provincetown. ‘Where we live is a quiet, lovely, isolated place,’ he says. ‘It’s that calm I love.’ Baker will be talking about and signing ‘The Quality of Light’ on Thursday, September 6 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Books on Swarthmore.
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