Under the Dark Sky | Photos by Steven G. Smith

With his new book, photographer Steven G. Smith celebrates the vibrant communities and natural beauty of the thames river basin.

By Ian Aldrich

Dec 20 2018

The glow of sunrise contrasts with the velvety darkness of the night sky on Bigelow Pond near Union, Connecticut.

Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith

What does a river reveal about a place?

In the fall of 2013, photographer Steven G. Smith set out to explore that question. A newly minted New Englander who’d just started as an associate professor of visual journalism at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, he focused his lens on the Thames River, from southern Massachusetts through Connecticut, and its communities.

In doing so, Smith—who’d spent most of his life in the American West—encountered a lesser-known part of his new home state. Variously called “the Quiet Corner” or “the Last Green Valley,” it’s a region of rolling farmland, seemingly endless forests, and the lone patch of true dark sky between Washington, D.C., and Boston—which gave Smith the title for his new book of photographs, Under the Dark Sky: Life in the Thames River Basin.

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“I had my ideas of what Connecticut was, that it was heavily developed and heavily populated,” says Smith, a Pulitzer Prize winner whose work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times, and Smithsonian Magazine. “I was surprised to find this region, which is so close to Boston and New York, and how much rural appeal it had.”

For three years Smith devoted his nights and weekends to the project. He ventured out in blizzards, driving rain, and scorching sun, and racked up more than 10,000 miles on his car. “I became obsessed,” he says.

Out of that obsession was born a body of work that chronicles a New England life that is both rooted in the past and continuously evolving. In Smith’s book, a portrait of a garment mill worker in Stafford Springs, Connecticut, is just a few pages removed from a picture of a young Haitian girl in nearby Norwich, waiting for her parents after church. A photo of a farmer and her draft horses working the land is close to one that showcases a new crop of cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London.

As Smith homed in on this region and its people, he discovered something else. Something personal, and maybe even a little surprising.

“This was my introduction to New England,” says Smith. “I’d come here on assignment but always with a specific focus. Here, I got the chance to study an entire region, to get a candid look at it. It feels like home now.”

New recruits line up for a group photo on their first day at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Founded in 1876, the school welcomes nearly 250 cadets every summer.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

Willow Rose Chesner heads up a line of beauty pageant contestants at the Lebanon County Fair in Lebanon, Connecticut.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

A flock of geese rises along riverbanks lined with old mill buildings in Putnam, Connecticut.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

Dressed in her Sunday best, 6-year-old Angeleah Pamphile waits for her parents after church in Norwich, Connecticut. The Pamphile family attends one of several French-speaking Haitian churches in Norwich, a town that saw the arrival of many Haitian immigrants after a 2010 earthquake devastated that country.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

Father George Charland, left, and Father David Galonek prepare at Notre Dame Catholic Church to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the first Catholic Mass in Southbridge, Massachusetts.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

Connor Priest gets ready to show his sheep at the annual Woodstock Fair, a signature event in Woodstock, Connecticut, for more than 150 years.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

At a powwow held at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Mashantucket, Connecticut, Autaquay Peters prepares to lay down her blanket after performing a traditional courtship ritual called the Blanket Dance.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

A bonfire flotilla on the Quinebaug River lights up the night during River Fire, a summer spectacle organized by the residents of Putnam, Connecticut.
*Photo Credit : Steven G. Smith*

To see more of Steven G. Smith’s exploration of the Thames River Basin, go to newengland.com/steven-smith.

Ian Aldrich

Ian Aldrich is the Senior Features Editor at Yankee magazine, where he has worked for more for nearly two decades. As the magazine’s staff feature writer, he writes stories that delve deep into issues facing communities throughout New England. In 2019 he received gold in the reporting category at the annual City-Regional Magazine conference for his story on New England’s opioid crisis. Ian’s work has been recognized by both the Best American Sports and Best American Travel Writing anthologies. He lives with his family in Dublin, New Hampshire.

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