Charcoal Press publishes Sealskin, the debut monograph of Jeff Dworsky.
Jeff Dworsky dropped out of school at 14, bought a Leica at 15, and moved to a small island in Maine at 16 to become a fisherman.
In “Sealskin,” photographs of his life are paced to an old Celtic folktale about a fisherman who discovers a selkie, falls in love, has a family, but must let her go. It is a story of desire, the erosion of time, and the inevitability of change. Using Kodachrome film, Dworsky documented his family, daily life, and the fishing community in a small Maine village during the 70-80s, capturing a world that no longer exists.
Ten years ago, Jesse Lenz, publisher of Charcoal Press, bumped into Jeff Dworsky at a small coffee shop on an island in Penobscot Bay. Dworsky turned, saw Lenz’s Leica, and said, “I used to shoot with a Leica.” That was the beginning of their friendship. To Lenz, Jeff embodies the ideal artist—someone who is consumed by living their life, with photography as a natural byproduct. Each year, Lenz would visit Dworsky, talk about cameras and the state of photography, and dig through his archive of Kodachrome slides. It was an ongoing process of getting to know Jeff while seeing his life through his own eyes.
There was a deep sense of mystery and beauty in Dworsky’s photos, especially the ones of his wife and young children, who served as his muses. His images of his wife—planting a garden, birthing a child, walking through foggy fields, or standing naked by the ocean—carried a haunting quality. Seeing her at the water’s edge, Lenz was reminded of Kópakonan, the legendary selkie of Kalsoy. Over time, her presence in the images faded, marking a clear shift in Dworsky’s work. When Lenz asked him about it, Dworsky responded simply, “My ex-wife left the island. We stayed.”
Mythology and folklore endure because their themes continue to resonate across generations. As a publisher, the task was to connect these timeless threads within Dworsky’s work. While artists may not always recognize the overarching themes in their creations, the publisher saw it as their role to reveal these connections. In Sealskin, Dworsky’s photographs of his family and the fishing community are artfully woven together with the selkie folktale—a romantic tragedy in which the selkie, torn between two worlds, returns to the sea, leaving behind her human family. This story not only captured the emotional tone Lenz felt in Dworsky’s work from the very first viewing, but also eerily mirrored Dworsky’s own life. His story reminds us that folklore and myths may be closer to reality than we often think.
Jeff Dworsky : Sealskin
Charcoal Press
Hardcover, Embossed Synthetic Leather w/ tipped-in image
110 Pages
10 x 13 inches
Edition of 1000
ISBN: 978-1-7362345-4-9
from $65.00
