Three exhibits to feature works of award-winning photojournalist
Moments in time
Three exhibits to feature works of award-winning photojournalist
By gloria stravelli
Staff Writer
Photographer Veronica L. Yankowski is displaying her work at three local venue, featuring images from 9/11 as well as scenic landscape photographs.
Seven years as a photojournalist at some of New Jersey’s top daily and weekly newspapers could not have prepared Veronica Lynn Yankowski for the gamut of experiences the past year would hold for her.
"It’s been an almost overwhelming year. I’ve had a lot of career milestones this year," said Yankowski, 28.
The Greater Media Newspapers staff photographer not only garnered several top awards from professional groups, but this month she will have three concurrent photo exhibits at local venues and her first book will be released.
Amid the kudos and openings, Yankowski’s year included an impromptu — and horrifying — photo session of the final seconds of the World Trade Center. A personally and professionally challenging "assignment," recording the devastation wrought by the terrorist attacks is what photojournalism is all about, she pointed out.
"That’s what we do," she said matter-of-factly. "We document moments in time as they happen."
Photos of 9/11 as well as her award-winning photo essays are among the works by Yankowski on exhibit throughout September at McEwan’s Coffeehouse in Keyport.
On the first anniversary of 9/11, an exhibit of her photographs relating to Sept. 11 will open at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center on Ocean Avenue and will continue through Sept. 28.
On that date, Yankowski will be the featured artist at the newly opened gallery at the Ocean County Center for the Performing Arts (the Strand Theatre) in Lakewood.
Her book, Dialogue3, published by Laureate Publishing, a division of Muse Productions, will be available at the show, which will run from 4-7 p.m. The Muse Productions’ official kickoff, "The Opening Night for the Muse," will also feature artwork by several other artists and the newly released CD by the artist maestrogap.
A lifelong interest, photography became Yankowski’s artistic focus when she headed off to Rider University, Lawrenceville, where she earned a journalism degree.
Yankowski was photo editor of the college newspaper for two years, photo editor for the yearbook for three years, and assistant to the college photographer for three years, and at the same time worked part time at a local newspaper.
"I really immersed myself in it," she recalled. "I still run into people from Rider who remember me as the girl with the camera."
While at Rider, Yankowski followed her journalist’s instincts and traveled to Washington, D.C., to photograph the Million Man March in October 1995. Her powerful photos of the march and of icons like Rosa Parks were displayed at the college art gallery in her first solo exhibit and are featured in her new book.
"I’m a big history buff, and I was studying the 1960s at the time," she explained." It was historic, and I knew it was something I had to be at."
Following graduation, she traveled up and down the East Coast working as a photographer, returning to New Jersey in 1998 to work as a freelance photojournalist.
By then, her career path was clear.
"I knew it was journalism at that point," she said. "I love the excitement, the adrenaline of photojournalism. It’s exciting to get a picture nobody else has, to shoot a cover photo."
A Bloomfield native, Yankowski worked a three-year stint for The Star-Ledger in Newark before joining Greater Media as staff photographer in August 2001.
Her work for Greater Media’s nine weekly newspapers garnered four New Jersey Press Association awards in 2001, including first place in feature photography.
Early on the morning of Sept. 11, Yankowski was heading to work when news of the first attack on the WTC came over the car radio. Knowing access to the city was closed off, she headed to the seaport in Elizabeth, and when she got there, climbed atop her car, and began shooting the tower that remained standing.
"By the time I got there, both had been hit and one had fallen, although I didn’t know that at the time," she recounted. "There was so much smoke I couldn’t see it. I was clicking the shutter. It was there … I switched the lens, put the camera back up to my eye, and watched it go down through my lens."
Yankowski automatically kept doing just what she was supposed to do.
"I kept clicking, 10-15 frames. I was crying, screaming, ‘Oh my God!’ " she said. "I realized I had the last second of a lot of people’s lives on film."
A week later, Yankowski made her way to Ground Zero on her day off.
"I felt compelled to go," she observed.
After waiting in line for hours to get a press pass, then walking around in the pouring rain until she was exhausted, Yankowski was frustrated by her inability to get to the scene of the devastation but refused to give up and go home. She talked her way into a tour with two Port Authority police officers.
"I ended up walking around with them," she said. "I went on automatic pilot, shooting everything in sight. There was no talking. We were in awe. I remember being careful where I walked, where I stepped. I remember walking by police and firemen and thanking them. I photographed people who had been there for nine days, working on the rescue — it was still a rescue at that point. Some [rescue workers] hadn’t been home."
Photos like Hero 2001 are included in the Keyport and Monmouth Beach exhibits.
"I took a photo of a rescue worker my age just sitting there in front of the flag. It touched me because he was my own age, and he was doing this job. He was out of it, just staring at all of it, even though I was in his face with a wide-angle lens," she said.
In the weeks that followed, Yankowski was called upon to continue shooting the effects of the terrorist attacks, this time photographing local families and residents at the numerous vigils for 9/11 victims.
While the Monmouth Beach exhibit focuses on 9/11, Yankowski’s exhibits in Keyport and at the Strand include her favorite landscapes, nature studies and photo essays on people and personalities.
Yankowski’s study of a Sayreville veteran at a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor titled Salute took first place in feature photography in the 2001 NJPA competition.
She also took second and third place, respectively, in the competition’s portrait category for I Pledge Allegiance, a study of a young girl at a 9/11 vigil in Middletown, and A Brother’s Love, a study of a grief-stricken gas station owner whose brother was killed in a post-9/11 hate crime.
In addition, photos taken at Ground Zero took third place in the New Jersey Press Photographers Association monthly contest.
For a free ticket to the Sept. 28 art show/book signing event, which will include wine tastings, food and music, call Muse Productions at (732) 910-7034.