By the time I arrived in Provincetown in 1982 to find myself there was already a vibrant community of young women washashores here, nourished by a long and deep tradition of strong, independent Portuguese women. There seemed to be no boundary to what we could do, and no limit to what we could imagine ourselves to be if we worked at it. There was a kind of reciprocal relationship between communities. Strangers were accepted because they were willing to work hard and lay down roots. I remember so vividly riding down Commercial Street on my bicycle under the ladders of women painting a house. That’s what I tried to honor in the years between 1985 and the early ’90s — the nobility of women at work.
Some of the women I photographed have passed away, or moved away. Some are doing other work. Anne Howard is now the first female Provincetown building commissioner. Local women who were schoolgirls then are running businesses and working the harbor. Lori Meads is the president of Seamen’s Bank, and Grace Ryder-O’Malley is C.O.O. of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. I’ve become the artist I dreamed of being all my life, nourished by something about this place that is compelling and yet indefinable.