Photography by S.B. Walker, from the forthcoming exhibition “Nor’East,” to be shown summer 2021 at Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland.

The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) will present the exhibition “S.B. Walker: Nor’east” beginning May 29 and continuing through Sept. 12. Included in the exhibition are more than 50 images from the photographer’s six-year journey documenting contemporary life in Maine.

Beginning in early 2014, S.B. (Sam) Walker traveled more than 100,000 miles throughout the state in an attempt to render a truly nuanced visual record of Maine. On the face of it, a project such as this appears to be a rational, census-like undertaking akin to the vast photographic surveys conducted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In reality, says Walker, “It was more a windy road, dictated by intuition, serendipity and strange happenings. Over the course of the project, I’ve had the privilege to spend time with 10th-generation Mainers, aging back-to-the-landers, young farmers, recent immigrants, artists, ex-convicts, entrepreneurs, drag queens, affluent summer folk, fishermen, crypto-currency traders, and so on. Despite the richness of these encounters, I am left with more questions than answers. To define a time and place is, in some sense, an impossible task, though, as an artist, trying to articulate what cannot be described is perhaps the best kind of sport.”

Walker lives and works in Rockland and Portland, and his work has been exhibited internationally.

CMCA is located at 21 Winter St., Rockland. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to https://cmcanow.org.