Eternal Sunshine

A new collection of photographs and essays captures the essence of the Jersey Shore.

By: Susan Van Dongen

"image"
‘Four Seasons at the Shore: Photographs of the Jersey Shore’ features the work of 49 photographers. Among them, J.J. Raia has captured Island Beach State Park blanketed by snow.


   As an engineer for Amtrak, J.J. Raia spends his working days navigating trains through some of the most highly developed areas of the Northeast. He especially sees a lot of New Jersey, but not the verdant parts of the Garden State.
   So, when the work week is over, he points his vehicle away from the human population, takes along a medium-format camera and explores New Jersey’s forests, mountains, meadows, landscapes and seascapes. Fortunately, there are still many pockets of natural beauty in our state. He is especially fond of the seashore.
   A number of Mr. Raia’s pictures are among the 332 photographs in the new book, Four Seasons at the Shore (Down the Shore Publishing, $48). This beautiful edition captures winter, spring, summer and fall at the beach from every aspect — sea birds silhouetted on the water, racing catamarans, sun worshippers, surfers and lifeguards, boardwalks clogged with tourists at the height of the season, wildlife in the meadows and fishermen casting for stripers on crisp autumn mornings. New Jersey’s shoreline gets a loving visual and literary treatment from more than four-dozen photographers and five writers, mostly from the Garden State. Quotes from Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Bruce Springsteen and other "sages" are scattered among the gorgeous photography.

"image"
Tracks along naked sand dunes at Island Beach State Park by J.J. Raia .


   Mr. Raia seems to have an especially keen eye for the serenity of the beach and manages to find places at the seashore that have been untouched by humans. He goes early enough in the morning to get shots of untrampled, clean sand — before shore-lovers, their kids and their stuff re-arrange the sublime scenery.
   "I shoot right on the shore," he says. "I try to stay away from the imprint of man — I try to keep out telephone lines, stay away from fences, boardwalks and jetties. I try to keep my pictures so they might resemble the beaches before civilization came around. In fact, that’s what I try to do with all my pictures of New Jersey."
   One of his photos graces the cover of Four Seasons at the Shore — a winter wonderland of snow-covered dunes with saw grass poking through the white stuff. Another photo shows a golden sunrise at Sandy Hook, just miles away from the human menagerie of New York City. Yet Mr. Raia has captured a peaceful moment that might be a tropical paradise in the South Seas, or the New Jersey shore centuries ago.
   "I’ve cleaned up a lot of places before I shoot," he says. "I’ve carried away tires and garbage. Or sometimes things are hidden behind something else. I always go out in the morning — there’s better light and sometimes fog or dew. There’s just more happening in the morning."

"image"
Seaside goldenrod and poison ivy on Island Beach State Park photo by J.J. Raia.


   Mr. Raia says his favorite place to shoot the shore is Island Beach State Park because it offers a variety of vistas and subject matter — bay and ocean, dunes, scrub pines and other plants. He also likes Wildwood, but not its riotous boardwalk. Mr. Raia prefers the wide, flat Wildwood beaches, which sometimes collect little lagoons of water when the tide goes out.
   "You get this sheen of water that reflects the entire sky," he says.
   As far as a personal preference, the native of Bayonne vacationed at Point Pleasant growing up, and now takes his own family to Wildwood.
   It’s the gentle allure of the shore, especially for residents of the Garden State, that makes the book so universally appealing. People who have lived or vacationed at the New Jersey shore feel a deep connection to it, no matter where they live or how long it’s been since they felt sand in their shoes. Four Seasons at the Shore immerses the reader and viewer in everything our beaches and their environs have to offer. From the ocean to the bay, to the amusements and arcades, this book of photographs and essays captures the essence of the shore from Sandy Hook to Cape May, and along Delaware Bay.

"image"
Rebecca Barger discovers another stage of undress at Ocean City .


   And while the shore in the summer is especially easy to love, the photographers and essayists also show the splendor of the other seasons — an aspect many New Jersey natives know well.
   Beach Haven-based author Larry Savadove, who has recently released the novel The Oyster Singer (Down the Shore Publishing, $22.95), writes, "To dwellers of the sea, fall is relief, and belief. The beach no longer smells of coconut oil. It is primeval again. Looking seaward, you see eternity. Houses stand empty-eyed. Gulls squawk at tire tracks in the sand until, they, too, are gone. The sea darkens, but the sky lifts."
   Concerning the winter, writer-editor and Harvey Cedars resident Margaret Thomas Buchholz writes, "the winter beach is invigorating, visceral. If the wind — always the wind — is from the west the dunes protect me. On a sunny winter day the beach seems wider, flatter, more expansive, the sand whiter…"

"image"
Mike Jones finds a snowy boardwalk at Seaside Heights.


   Other contributing photographers from central New Jersey include Burton Lipman of East Brunswick, Keith Drexler of Manville and David P. Barbara of Edison.
   In addition to his shore shots, Mr. Raia has been photographing wild areas of New Jersey and the western United States for about 13 years. Since 1996, Westcliffe and Browntrout publishers selected the self-taught photographer’s images for scenic New Jersey calendars. Mr. Raia’s work has also been seen in the former New Jersey Outdoors magazine, Popular Photography and Savvy. He’s had numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the state, including a two-person exhibit at the Watchung Arts Center and a solo exhibit at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morris County.
   "I always seemed to have a camera, but when I bought a medium-format, I decided to take myself more seriously," Mr. Raia says. "I gave myself two years to get published. Then I got the calendar, I had some book covers and I worked with ‘New Jersey Outdoors’ and the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, doing state park manuals and whatnot. It really worked out well for me."
   Although he loves the ocean, Mr. Raia has become fascinated with the American West, traveling several times to Utah, Nevada and Arizona to make pictures.
   "I’m starting to get a nice body of work together of the deserts and mountains," he says. "I like to research and explore the areas. I usually rent a four-wheel drive because some of the places where I shoot are 40 miles off the highway. So I sleep in the truck and combine exploring these areas with photography.
   "Out there, you always have a very long view — you can see for 50 or 60 miles all the time," he continues. "You don’t have that here. I don’t think I want to leave here, but when I retire, I want to do something with that part of the country, split my time between here and there. Like being a snowbird, but moving east and west instead of north and south."
Four Seasons at the Shore features photography by J.J. Raia and many others, as well as essays by Margaret Thomas Buchholz, John T. Cunningham, Sandy Gingras, Larry Savadove and Rich Youmans. On the Web: www.down-the-shore.com