PORT TOWNSEND — Mike McAndrew, a traveling photojournalist in his youth, happened to discover Port Townsend in the early 1990s.
He was working in Seattle, and a friend took him on a day trip over to the North Olympic Peninsula.
“I was only here for a couple of hours,” he recalled in an interview last week.
“I never forgot that visit.”
In 2007, McAndrew retired and moved to Port Townsend, where, as he puts it, he is pursuing his art.
The latest from McAndrew is Port Townsend: A Town for All Seasons, a 262-page book jammed with some 380 images of just about everything, from the Wooden Boat Festival and Kinetic Skulpture Race to the vacant Town Tavern and the Jefferson County Courthouse, resplendent against a perfect blue sky.
“It’s definitely not a glorification of Port Townsend,” the photographer said.
“There are a few postcard shots in there . . . but it’s not all sweet and sugary.”
The book is about change and how “things renew themselves,” McAndrew said.
It’s also about how “times are tough right now. But we will get through that.”
McAndrew self-published Port Townsend on www.Blurb.com, a create-your-own-book website, and anyone can preview it there for free.
DVD versions Monday
To hold a copy in one’s hands, though, costs $168.95 — a steep sum, McAndrew knows, so he’ll be offering $10 DVD versions of the book Monday during the weekly open-mic night at The Upstage, 923 Washington St.
The open mic, in which musicians, poets and all manner of artists take part, starts at 6 p.m. every Monday. All ages are welcome, and admission is free.
“I just want people to see it,” McAndrew said of his book.
“I’ve been wanting to do this forever.”
All Seasons in fact comes from a good four years of shooting photographs.
The images in the book were taken between September 2007 and August 2011.
And though McAndrew is 63 and “retired,” he is prolific beyond just this book.
He has also published a collection of film negatives and slides from the 1970s titled Accidental Beauty, a collaboration with local poet Rebecca Rafuse titled Port Townsend: The Party Never Ends and most recently a paean to the local open-mic nights, Open Mic: Three Songs and a Chance to Shine.
That last one is on www.Blurb.com, like A Town for All Seasons.
Downloading the books for preview on a computer screen takes awhile, “so I apologize,” McAndrew added.
To reach the photographer and find out more about his work, email mcAndrew2@juno.com or phone 360-385-9764.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
