Want To See A Lighthouse is the culmination of thirty years of Gary Briechle’s photographic obsession, showing that time does not pass – it congeals.
Gary Briechle’s practice is disciplined, almost monastic. Every day roving around Rockland, Maine in an SUV loaded with chemicals, looking at the same mundane scenes and subjects, but expecting different results. The collodion process itself is a ritual: Collodion, silver nitrate, light and waiting. Always waiting. Producing one glass plate at a time. Then returning home to print a single silver gelatin print from each plate taken before stashing the plate away in the attic, under a bed, or in a closet. He has no desire to exhibit or sell, only to create.
He photographs what is familiar and available: neighbors, children, backyards. His subjects seem caught between presence and absence. Indifferent to intention, but carry the quiet burden of existence.
The world depicted in Briechle’s photographs offers no explanation, no resolution. The photographs do not seek to impress or persuade. They linger – asking nothing, offering nothing – except the undeniable fact that they are still here.
There is no transcendence here. Only persistence.
Gary Briechle started photography in 1996 with a Pentax 6×9 and Contax 645. He moved to Maine in 2000. He is the author of two previous monographs. He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2015. He lives and works in midcoast Maine. With few exceptions, he draws and photographs daily.
I Want To See A Lighthouse
by Gary Briechle
Charcoal Press / October 2026
Hardcover, Linen with tipped-in image
11 x 14 inches / 224 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-7362345-4-9
Visit the website >
