On Exhibit: “The Wanderings of a Waterman” Photography by Nick Watts

Camden Public Library welcomes photographer and creator Nick Watts for his exhibition The Wanderings of a Waterman, featuring immersive underwater photography from around the world. The exhibit will be on display in the Picker Room Gallery during the month of September.*

The public is invited to an exhibit reception to view the works and meet the artist on Saturday, September 20, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. in the Picker Room.

Artist’s Statement

My name is Nick Watts, and The Wanderings of a Waterman is my way of sharing a life shaped, challenged, and inspired by the sea.

The ocean carried me to Mid-Coast Maine, and it’s the art, the people, the possibilities—and yes, always the sea—that has kept me here. Wanderings is a collection from the last decade I spent tracing the edges of the world’s oceans. It was beneath the waves where I felt most alive, where awe became my teacher, and where I discovered that life can be deeply, joyfully lived in rhythm with the sea.

It began with what I thought would be a six-month trip to New Zealand, my only intention to learn how to surf and explore. Instead, it became a ten-year walk-a-bout where I discovered that life is meant to be slow and intentional. To truly live is to go, try, fail, and to grow through the unknown.

I never got on my connecting flight home from NZ—I stayed. Fiji pulled me in, and from there, the sea became both my path and my compass. Without enough for a plane ticket, I found another way: six months, six boats, and seventeen islands later, I had hitchsailed 3,400 nautical miles to Australia through countries I didn’t know existed. I was stranded on islands and the raw edges of the world. I learned to rely on strangers, to adapt, to trust, and to listen to the sea.

That voyage, and the years of adventures that followed, gave me more than stories—it gave me a way of seeing. Sailing, diving, spearfishing, foraging, surfing: each taught me to embrace wonder, creativity, and resilience. The sea offered me not just a livelihood, but a way of life.

This gallery is a glimpse of that journey. It is both a record of where I’ve been and an offering of inspiration for wherever you’re going. My hope is that it stirs something in you, a reminder that adventure waits just beyond the edge of comfort—and that joy is found in the wanderings. 

*The Picker Room hosts meetings and library events and is not always open for viewing. Please call ahead or check our website calendar to see what’s happening daily.