Biography:

Tammy Packie is an award winning freelance photographer who operates her own studio while pursuing social documentary projects. Ms. Packie moved from a farm in central Maine to Bar Harbor in 1982, where she currently resides. Leaving a career in medicine, Packie began studying photography 12 years ago, graduating in 1989 from the Maine Photographic Workshops Associate degree Program from the University of Maine at Augusta.

Packie has worked for various Maine Newspapers; currently she is staff photographer for The Maine Times. She won the Maine Press Association Award for Spot News while working for the Bar Harbor Times. Employed for five years as a staff photographer at The Jackson Laboratory, an internationally renowned genetics research center, Packie combined her experience in art and medicine to contribute to research and development projects. The Maine Arts Commission selected Packie for its Maine Artists Registry. Packie has earned recognition for her work in Maine and Latin America, and she has lectured and exhibited in Maine and Mexico. Her work has been published in newspapers, journals, and the Best of Photography 1994 from Serbin Communications Press.

An interest in social activism motivates Packie to volunteer her services to non-profit organizations, including the YMCA, Amigos de Sian Kaan, and the Christian Medical and Dental Society. Packie's childhood memories motivate her social documentary work; of particular interest are traditional means of livelihood that embody unique relationships between man and the environment. Since the early 1990's Packie has focused on fishing cultures. In 1994 she began documenting the Maine sardine industry, a maritime tradition currently undergoing rapid changes which threaten to destroy it and the rich cultural heritage it has fostered. In 1995 Packie photographed traditional methods of fishing on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. Pursuing a broader education she returned to study marine biology and anthropology at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, graduating with a BA in Human Ecology in 1997.

Packie continues to photograph the sardine fishery. In 1998 a grant from the Maine Community Foundation enabled her to interview various people engaged in this fishery. Her objective is to produce a book that combines her black and white photographs with a narrative based on her own research as well as oral histories. Desiring to document this unique Maine tradition before it disappears forever, Packie is creating valuable historical photographs while at the same time providing a sensitive portrayal of the people who continue to ply a traditional means of livelihood on the coast of Maine.

Work in the Davistown Museum MAG Gallery for Sale

Seawall B/W Silver Print 16" x 20" (framed) $300

Agnes Pulling Fish B/W silver print 14" X 17" (framed) $285.00

Work in Other Galleries or Collections

Eddie Shaw Enters The Crowd

Mayan Basket Maker