All prints are handmade by Peter Ralston on archival rag paper with an archival ink set.

Small Matted Prints - This collection is printed on 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, matted, ready to be framed.

New Work - This open edition is a collection of images created since January 2004. They are printed on 17 x 22 inch sheets.

The Master Prints - This limited edition (LE) print is limited to 50 prints of this image plus ten artist proofs (AP). They are printed on 24 x 36 inch sheets.

Custom sizes of this image are available by special request. 

The story behind From the Graves

This night I fulfilled a three or four year fantasy of stranding myself on a tiny ledge 1.5 nautical miles off Camden, Maine. The purpose…to give myself a rock-steady platform upon which to set my tripod and make a few “different” photographs of the 4th of July show.

Probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, as it involved scrambling onto the ledge, ominously marked on the charts as The Graves, from a small skiff, solo. The endeavor involved much crawling around on extremely slippery rocks, covered with rockweed and algaeic slime, all coated with beaucoup fresh gull poop….a great deal, in fact, of the latter.

RAVEN, filled with family and friends, cast me off in my skiff and lingered nearby as I rowed over to the rocks and gracelessly clambered aboard the ledge. Once I was seemingly safe off they went, into Camden Harbor, to enjoy the show. 

So there I was - at long last – marooned out there in the looming dark…tide and moon rising. 

It was lovely...the great concussion of the exploding shells, juxtaposed with the muted gong ringing in the gentle swell and the confused cries of the gulls in the dark surround. It was truly perfect.

And we managed to get me off in one piece, relatively dry, albeit reeking of gull and cormorant shit.

Ah, the wonderful things I get to do in the pursuit of my joy.