Early on a misty morning on August 9, 2010, photographer Michael Johnson took three quick shots of the Polar Bears in action at Inkwell Beach in Oak Bluffs. He didn’t know it at the time, but one of those frames would go on to become one of the most iconic images to come out of Martha’s Vineyard in recent years.
The black and white picture, titled “Joy,” captures a circle of 20 women in silhouette, standing in gently rippling water, arms raised as if to embrace the new day, the sun illuminating the mist, adding an ethereal glow from above.
“When I looked at it, ‘joy’ was the first thing it said to me,” Mr. Johnson said. “Upraised arms are a universal symbol of joy and celebration. I’ve had people tear up in the gallery when they see it for the first time. It’s not just about the Inkwell or Martha’s Vineyard, it’s a universal image that speaks to people.”
Mr. Johnson credited Polar Bear Carleen Cordwell for getting him to Inkwell Beach on that August morning. “I had been begging him to come and take the picture of us in the water, and the rest is history,” Ms. Cordwell said.
The Polar Bears began in 1946, according to Caroline Hunter, 30-year Polar Bear and de facto leader of the staunchly egalitarian group. It was where people of color, predominantly in the service industries, gathered to start their day. Today, Polar Bears are black and white, young and old, almost exclusively women, with a growing number of participants. Ms. Hunter said that in August 2015, there were “1,000 in the water with us,” and in August 2016, the number had risen to 1,500. The Polar Bears also have over 1,100 Facebook followers.
‘Joy’ goes viral
It wasn’t until a year after taking the shot that the genial, soft-spoken photographer knew he had captured something special.
“I was doing the Chilmark Flea Market, I put ‘Joy’ on an easel, and people would just stop in their tracks,” he said. “In 2012, Sonny and Billy, owners of the Island House, asked me to put my work in their front windows, which is like having a billboard on Circuit Avenue, and then it really blew it up. Over the next seven years it became huge. ‘Joy’ went viral.”
People from around the world have purchased “Joy.” It hangs in doctors’ offices, therapists’ offices, classrooms, judges’ chambers, and closer to home, in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.
Now “Joy” is on the first sign in Oak Bluffs history that demarcates the 150 yards of cherished Oak Bluffs shoreline, still named “Town Beach” on town records, as “Inkwell Beach — Home of the Polar Bears.”
Time of the signs
Speaking to The Times on Tuesday morning at Inkwell Beach, while Polar Bears circled and sang and got their hearts pumping, Mr. Johnson said Inkwell Beach signage had been discussed for several years. He initially got the idea after reading about a plaque placed at the Inkwell Beach in Santa Monica. “In 2015 I went to two Polar Bear friends, Carleen Cordwell and Caroline Hunter, and we talked about it,” he said. “I told them I wasn’t the person to go through all the process and permitting with the town. The process went on hold, as these things sometimes do.”
Mr. Johnson was spurred to act later that summer by a conversation he had with friend Orlando Rodriguez at the Inkwell. “He said, ‘Why don’t you just go do it?’ Typically I’m not the kind of person who does things like that. But I thought when it came to this, maybe I am that kind of person,” he said. Mr. Johnson made the signs two winters ago, intending to put them up last summer, but the signposts weren’t up at the time. With new posts in place for the summer of ’17, he took matters into his own hands. Late on the night of July 3, he went to work, “surreptitiously, and with stealth,” he said, laughing. “I had all the wrong tools. The pressure-treated wood was much harder than I’d expected. I went out at 3 am; there was no wind, no surf, and people were still out and about.”
He encountered several more wrinkles that night: “When I got there, a couple had just finished having sex on the beach, they were putting on their clothes and fumbling, and one of them lost their phone,” he said, laughing. “Then I turned around and saw a police cruiser idling, and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t get caught until I get these signs up.’ Then the officer asked the couple if everything was OK. None of them saw me. Later three drunken bros came by, trying to find their hotel, but they didn’t notice me either.”
He went back the next night, with the right tools, and finished the job.
“I wanted them up for Fourth of July, the inaugural day for the Polar Bears,” he said. In a stroke of serendipity, the next morning a memorial service was being held for longtime Polar Bear Gus Gaskin.
“People were ecstatic that the beach was marked and that there’s an homage to the Polar Bears,” Mr. Johnson said. “Some people asked me if I did it. I said I could neither confirm nor deny it.”
“It was an exciting day to come down and see those signs,” Polar Bear Kathy Laskowski said.
Mr. Johnson said he was “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” as far as the reaction from the town, but heard nothing for a few days. Then Ms. Laskowski sent a thank-you email to the parks department and highway department. “They wrote back and said, ‘What sign?” she said.
Mr. Johnson, Ms. Hunter, and several Polar Bears went before the Parks Department on July 10 to make the case for the signs. “I told them I did it for the love of this beach and
for the Island,” he said. “I told them why I thought it was important to get it done, and I apologized for my breaches of protocol. They said ‘OK,’ after I agreed to take care of them and take them down between Halloween and Memorial Day.”
“We didn’t have a problem with it, we were just wondering who put them up,” highway department supervisor Richie Combra told The Times. “Inkwell Beach is pretty well known, but it’s not officially named the Inkwell; town records still show it as ‘Town Beach.’ I suggested they get an article on the warrant at the next town meeting to officially change it.”
“I want to voice my deep appreciation to the parks and recreation department for their patience and understanding, allowing me to give this gift,” Mr. Johnson said. “There are a lot of reasons they could have said no. They deserve big thanks.”
“We really appreciate how Amy [Billings] and Richie [Combra] handled the whole thing,” Ms. Laskowski said, in an often-repeated sentiment. “They managed to take the high road and make it a win-win for all by listening to Michael’s comments and letting the signs stay with no fuss. The signs are great. We love our beaches, and just hope the town can continue to work to make the beaches better and better.”
Since the signs went up, Mr. Johnson said, the most common reaction he hears is, “It’s about time.”
“We love the signs,” Ms. Cordwell said. “People come all the time and ask, ‘Where’s the Inkwell?’ It’s been so well received. It was a gift to the town from Michael and the Polar Bears.”
“I’ve been after the town about signage for a long time,” Ms. Hunter said. She sent The
Times a 2010 letter to the board of selectmen imploring the town to take better care of town beaches, including increased signage. In the letter, she said she’d been asking the town for action for the previous three years. “We’re going to do everything we can to preserve this beach,” she said. “We love the signage. I’d like the town to add its name to all the town beaches. We’ll produce a warrant article for town meeting, to officially name Inkwell and Pay Beach.”
“People are hungry for information,” Ms. Laskowski said. “There was a big push for wayfinding with the streetscape committee, but it’s been two, three years now, and how many new signs have we had? Signs should be the easy part.”
Vineyard-grown talent
Mr. Johnson’s photography career began after he moved to the Vineyard in 1981, leaving behind a job in New Jersey of “schlepping boxes” at Scholastic Books. He took his first photography course that same year at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, with a $350 camera funded by a loan from his father. He began shooting, painting houses, and doing odd jobs around the Island to make ends meet over the next 15 years. He lived in a studio apartment on Ocean Avenue, “with a darkroom a few feet from my bed,” he said.
He also took up juggling, and ended up on the front page of the Boston Globe when Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Stan Grossfeld asked him to juggle in the gazebo in Ocean Park. Coincidentally, Grossfeld shot him in silhouette, in black and white. The picture also got Mr. Johnson summoned for trespassing, but the charges were dropped at the courthouse.
He now splits time between Oak Bluffs and San Francisco. He has a gallery on Main Street in Vineyard Haven, and also sells his work at Chilmark Flea Market and at Featherstone. His art funds his extensive traveling around the globe.
“I’m not rich, but I’ve been making a living at this for 16 years,” he said.