Photographer Ann Hillis is the youngest of four daughters born to Alice and Richard Hillis who had a home in Christmas Cove starting in the 1940s. 

 

Below is an excerpt  from the Lincoln County News article July 27, 2006, reporting on a SBHS showing of Ann Hillis photos at the Union Church, Parish Community Center.

 

Portraits of South Bristol draws 200 people

 

Close to 200 people came to see portraits of South Bristol, an exhibit of photographs of South Bristol people and places taken by Ann Hillis and shown by the South Bristol Historical Society for four afternoons last week.

 

Encouraged by Joseph Muir of the “Black and White Image” in Portland, Hillis studied under Craig Stevens at the Maine Photographic Workshop in Rockport. She has exhibited in the Farnsworth Museum, Bowdoin College, Westbrook College and in New York with photographers from the Rockport Photographic Workshop.

 

The group of photographs was the result of an overnight assignment by Craig Stevens for students to take pictures of people in their hometown and print them for class. With his encouragement, Ann continued taking pictures of the people of SouthBristol at work and at leisure throughout 1976 and 1978.

 

Ann Hillis prints were shown at Round Top Center for the Arts in 1998. Ms. Hillis was quoted in the 1998 program as follows "I am most grateful to the people of South Bristol for letting me intrude upon their lives at all hours. This study is a record of how things were back then. It is in the nature of things to change. These pictures are of a moment in our illusion of time, a bit of modern history. I hope the townspeople enjoy seeing some old friends and remembering how things were not so long ago.”