Monroe Center photographers will be featured in a unique exhibit on Sunday, Feb. 24 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Monroe Center for the Arts on 720 Monroe St. The exhibit features the works of photographers Craig Wallace Dale, Jason Jaskot, Mac Hartshorn, and Marie Papp. The free event also includes music and light refreshments.
“They are really great photographers,” said Godfrey Periera, cultural director at the Monroe Center. “That is the reason for this exclusive photography show.”
“We are proud of our tenants and want to showcase their talents,” said owner Hershy Weiss. “Tenants at the Monroe Center get our full support and we will do anything we can to help promote their businesses.”
From Fashion Week to Hoboken city streets
The Reporter caught up last week with a number of the photographers who will be featured in the show. Jaskot was covering Fashion Week for a New York-based magazine called Asian Fusion.
“Over the years I have shot a lot of fashion shows,” said Jaskot. “This is the first season I have had a media pass for one client.”
Jaskot shoots agency models from NYC as well as models, actors, and corporate headshots from around the globe. By request he will shoot baby portraits, events, and weddings.
He describes his style as simple and beautiful, yet edgy.
“If I can use one light and make someone look great, I would rather do that than do a four light set-up,” said Jaskot. “And I love people. I always loved shooting people more than doing any kind of landscape or still life.”
Jaskot lives in Morristown but has worked in Hoboken for 10 years. Seven years ago he moved into his Monroe Center studio. He says he loves the space and that “the management is extremely supportive of my work.”
“The location is perfect,” said Jaskot who has shot around the world. “The environment is perfect….just urban enough to get street scenes…[but] not so crazy like Manhattan, that there are always people running around.”
He added that Hoboken offers the “perfect balance.”
Family intimacy and honesty
“I like to be spontaneous,” said Mac Hartshorn of Hartshorn Portraiture. “Each family or child is unique, as each shoot is completely unique to them, allowing me to capture the family relationship in all its intimacy and honesty.”
Hartshorn Portraiture offers professional fine art family portraiture of pregnancy, newborns, and children. The portraits can evoke feelings of happiness through a child’s unabashed smile or reveal a sense of intimacy in a couple’s embrace.
“I’ve been concentrating on the pieces and parts of babies,” said Mac about his recent work.
“One of my favorite things are baby butts…little tushies.”
He added that, “Hands and feet are also details that I love.”
Hartshorn gets exposure to babies in all of their moods because of his work.
“I see the occasional crying baby and I have developed a wonderful crying baby series,” said Hartshorn.
His fine art work, on the other hand, is more abstract than the family portraits he creates.
“Little toes or a baby’s tiny hand grasping a fathers finger can be appreciated by all – not just the parents,” said Hartshorn.
Before settling down in Hoboken, Hartshorn was a fashion photographer who would spend half of his year traveling around the world photographing models. Hartshorn and his wife Jennifer moved to Hoboken over 10 year ago. Two years after arriving in town, they opened the doors to Hartshorn Portraiture in the Monroe Center for the Arts. The couple merged their respective skills – Mac’s 25 years in the fashion photography business and Jennifer’s management expertise – in order to help shape their business.
Capturing the right online dating image
Marie Papp, a Hoboken resident since 1984, describes her style as artistic, emotional, and elegant. With over 20 years of experience, Papp has garnered recognition and awards for her wedding photography and has been featured in a number of wedding publications.
One factor that distinguishes Papp and her work as a photographer is that in addition to shooting weddings and babies, she also helps people get ready for online dating, which goes beyond the photo shoot.
“If we go on a job interview, we present our best selves,” noted Papp. “If we are looking for our mate I believe we should also put our best effort forward as well.”
She interviews each client who seeks to fine tune his or her online dating profile to understand what type of individual he or she seeks. She then works with the client to determine what kind of image he or she should project in order to attract the right type.
“There is something to say for someone who can capture your angles, and how you will look best,” said Papp.
Papp has had her photography business since 2002 and moved into a Monroe Center studio last October. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Pulling the viewer in
Photographer Craig Wallace Dale plans to show a body of work titled, “Language, Identity, Meaning,” at the Monroe Photography exhibit.
“The work is meant to act as a space where people will investigate, and thus begin to question language and identity and how both of those operations are culturally-created meaning structures,” said Dale in a written statement.
His pieces begin with photograph on paper. According to Dale he has also employed encaustic wax and oil paint to build texture and further the depth and mystery of the pieces.
“The work is intended to be richly beautiful and pull the viewer in deeper and deeper,” added Dale.
Dale, a Hoboken resident of 21 years, has three areas of work. In addition to his commercial work for magazines and corporations, Dale also owns a school of photography called Beyond the Photograph. Finally, he also has a fine art practice, an outgrowth of his photography, which also encompasses drawing, sculpture, video, and performance.
“I took a studio in the Monroe Center about seven years ago when my daughter was born and I had to take my work out of the house,” said Dale. “It’s been a great place to grow my practices and Hoboken has proven to be the perfect community to start a photography school.”
Exhibit details
The Monroe Center Photographers exhibit will be held on Sunday, Feb. 24 from 3 to 6 p.m. in Studio C – 301 on the third floor. The Monroe Center for the Arts is located at 720 Monroe Street. Admission and parking to the event are free. For more information, call (201) 795-5000 or email: gp@monroecenter.com.
Adriana Rambay Fernández may be reached at afernandez@hudsonreporter.com.