RANGELEY — The Portland Museum of Art is showing images by local photographer Madeline de Sinety, known for her striking images of people in small communities.

The photographs by de Sinety, born in France and a Rangeley resident since 1985, are primarily black and white. They include photos she took in France during the 1970s and ’80s and images taken later in Maine and in Uganda.

The exhibit opened Sept. 24 and goes until Dec. 31.

De Sinety said that she has always been interested in photographing people who live off the land. “They’re people leading simple lives without technical things,” she said. “And it’s a way of life that’s disappearing.”

One featured photograph, taken in France and titled “Four Loaves,” is a portrait of four people in plain clothing standing with their backs to a wall. Each one is smiling and holds a boulder-sized loaf of bread.

In Rangeley, de Sinety took extensive photographs of Matt Lord, a logger who used the old-fashioned technique of using a horse to pull felled trees.

When she first approached the man to ask if he would be her subject, he wasn’t exactly thrilled, she said, adding, “He wanted to be left alone.”

Finally, he agreed she could take pictures of him working on the condition that she stayed out of his sight. On the first day of this arrangement, de Sinety tried to move inconspicuously through the forest, but found herself tripping over roots as she looked through her viewfinder instead of at her feet.

“You are too funny,” she remembers the logger telling her. “You can come back anytime.”

The two later became good friends.

While in Rangeley, she also spent a lot of time with William Wegman, the photographer famous for his images of dogs.

De Sinety took several images of the photographer at work—including one of him walking with a wheel-mounted 20 x 20 camera. One thing that she and the other artist would never talk about is craft.

“He hates to talk about photography,” de Sinety said. “For him, it’s something you do, not something you talk about.”

After years in Maine, de Sinety decided to try a new adventure, this time in Uganda. Visiting Washington, D.C,. in the 1990s, she met a minister in the Ugandan government who had been fascinated to hear about her photographs of community in France.

The minister invited de Sinety to visit to her village and take photographs. De Sinety accepted the offer and has since been to the country three times.

While in the village, she stayed with the minister’s family in a thatched roof hut. The family graciously offered the photographer the bed while they slept on mats on the floor.

“There was no water or electricity,” de Sinety said. “It was wonderful.”

In Uganda, she saw similarities between the farm-centered village and the people she photographed in France and inMaine.

According to de Sinety, communities that have to work together to farm have a strong bond, whereas technological convenience has created isolation in developed places.

“People are more together when they are poor and living a simple life,” she said.

To capture photos of these lives, black-and-white film has been her medium of choice.

“It’s about light,” said de Sinety. “Black and white makes you focus more on the subject and you’re not distracted by the color all around.”

De Sinety recommends digital cameras for anyone getting started with photography. She also offered these words of advice: “Work spontaneously. Jump into the subject and do what’s happening.”

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