New Jersey 24/7

Rating:
Summary: Press photographers document local people in New Jersey 247
Review: ASHBURY PARK PRESS
By ANDREA CLURFELD
STAFF WRITER

We take photos to remember special holidays and occasions, photos to mark vacations and even more photos to herald a new baby's birth. But how often do we click cameras to document something just as important to our lives, our home?

That'd be New Jersey, our mutual address. If you're behind on your snaps, forgive yourself: Documenting through indelible images a state as varied and vivacious as ours can be a full-time job.

For many, it is. That's why DK Publishing expanded on its "America 24/7" photo book by publishing 50 state specials, including "New Jersey 24/7" ($24.95), a wide-ranging compilation of stand-alone photos and photo essays that taps the talents of all manner of photographers and features two award-winners from the Asbury Park Press, Peter Ackerman and Daryl Stone.

For Ackerman and Stone, selection for the "24/7" project meant spending seven straight days in May 2003 shooting thousands of images.

"We pretty much had free reign," Stone said, "but the idea was to tell a story of New Jersey." For Stone, that meant trailing commuters and a supervisor at the safari park at Great Adventure in Jackson, attending services at a church in Asbury Park and watching preparations for a prom.

"I figured I'd go back and shoot updates on people I'd done photo stories on," he said. He caught up with fishermen in Point Pleasant Beach, a teen with physical challenges in West Long Branch, and a Beachwood couple who have adopted three disabled children.

The large-size photo book, with its intensely saturated color images and high-impact format, begs coffee-table status, but it's been as much fun for the Press pros to flip through as it is for less, er, visually oriented Garden State residents.

"It was exciting to go to a store and see my photos in a book," Stone admitted.

"I'm going to get in touch with the people I photographed to let them know the book is out and they're in it," Ackerman added.

If the cover image looks a tad familiar, that's because it was taken at a location in the heart of the Jersey Shore. No give-aways here: Take a look at the cover, take a guess, then turn to pages 8 and 9 to see if your eyes have it.