While travelling down a lonely Maine highway at deep dusk, I came upon this brightly lit gas station and store. No cars stopped by while I photographed, and the dimly lit interior made me wonder if indeed someone was really working that night. There was something about the existential loneliness of this scene that reminds me of the feeling in Edward Hopper's paintings, which often portrayed human existence on the lonely edges of society. There is also something poignent about the neon piping around the building, which seems like an effort to hold back the ultimate darkness.

Perhaps it is appropriate that this photograph, layered with implied meanings of loneliness and perhaps evil, was taken in Maine--the home state of Stephen King. Looking back on the evening I took this picture, I'm now glad that I didn't enter the eerie Tuttle's Store.

Addendum: A granddaughter of the store's owners contacted me after seeing the photograph online and said that, had I ventured inside, I would have found her grandparents warm and friendly. I'm sure that's true. My wife says that I'm never one to let the facts get in the way of my imagination!

Lee Rentz