Justin Smulski is a freelance photographer based along the southern coast of Maine, working and traveling throughout the Northeast. His photographic portfolio is based largely around outdoor adventure, tourism, guiding services/wilderness lodges, editorial/documentary assignments, brand storytelling, aquaculture, and interiors. At the heart of his storytelling is a commitment to intimate details and listening deeply to the unfolding narrative in every quiet moment, helping viewers imagine themselves inside a photo—like a long-lost memory, finally rediscovered. Outside of his commercial and editorial work, Justin’s fine art photography has been featured in galleries in Portland and Midcoast Maine.

Justin grew up in New Hampshire before going to college at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He thought he wanted to be a professor but apparently just really liked tweed jackets.  Womp womp.

After working a few super lame desk jobs, he went to culinary school in Cambridge, Massachusetts and cut his teeth at restaurants in Boston and Portland. Justin has been a full-time freelance creative since 2020 when he left the culinary industry, though that orientation towards hospitality is a steady constant in his life and work. 

Justin is also a published poet with work most recently featured in Stonecoast Review. In fall of 2023, he spent three weeks as a resident artist on the shores of Lake Hebron in central Maine at Monson Arts. He writes about memory, the natural world, adventure, and how we struggle to understand the parts of ourselves that are settled and unsettled—themes that often arise in his photography, as well.

In his spare time he enjoys cooking, writing, board games at dive bars, hiking, road trips, gas station crab rolls, beach fires with his friends, making risotto over a Jetboil in the backcountry, and cramming an unreasonable amount of food and wine into a canoe. You can follow along on his adventures here.