Lionel Goodman employs his chemistry background to engage the human elements in his photographs.
By: Susan Van Dongen
TIMEOFF/MARK CZAJKOWSKI
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Photographer Lionel Goodman (above) surrounded by his work. Pictured below: through the lens of Mr. Goodman.
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As a professor of physical chemistry, Lionel Goodman has spent decades making careful observations, really looking at things and taking time to understand what might be going on beneath the surface.
It seems natural that he would employ this skill in his newly discovered passion for photography. Just a few years after his wife (abstract artist Ruth Goodman) gave him a camera, Mr. Goodman has shown talent for capturing obscure little twinklings of life.
"One of my strong interests is trying to see connections between people, their environment and society," Mr. Goodman says.
Twenty of the photographer’s favorite shots are on view in Unguarded Moments: A Photography Exhibit in the gallery at the Plainsboro Public Library through July 2. The longtime Princeton resident will give an informal talk about his work June 19 at the gallery.
"I try to photograph people in their unguarded moments," says Mr. Goodman, explaining the show’s title. "This means many of my images are taken with a zoom lens so that the subject is unaware that they are being photographed. And I print many of these images in large format because that emphasizes the subject-environment relationship."
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His "Morning Aperitif in Pont de Vaux" is a perfect instance of Mr. Goodman finding a subject oblivious to his surroundings, caught in a timeless moment. We see an almost archetypal rural Frenchman with a neat blond mustache and intense blue eyes, passing the morning over a few glasses of wine.
"We came into Pont de Vaux, a village in the Burgundy region, and we went to a café for coffee, adjacent to the place where this guy was sipping his aperitif," Mr. Goodman says. "It had to be an aperitif, it was a little too red for wine. So we had our coffee and left to go to market. We spent about 45 minutes at the market and came back for a second coffee and he was still there. I wanted to get the juxtaposition of him spending his morning with his aperitif, with this unchanged expression, while all this activity was going on behind him."
Mr. Goodman’s picture also is remarkable because it portrays a scene still common in a small French town, but dwindling more and more as on-the-go American culture infiltrates Europe.
Another shot, captured at the "Big E" the Eastern States Agricultural Expedition in Springfield, Mass. shows a family seated in the heart of a fairground, their faces totally lacking any trace of joy.
"’Thank God for Ice Cream’ focuses on a man and a woman, presumably the parents of the young girl sitting between them, licking an ice cream cone," Mr. Goodman writes in his artist’s statement. "The setting is at a fair, replete with flags and a carousel, but the lightheartedness of the fair has not reached this family, who seem disconnected from their environment and from each other."
Mr. Goodman surprised the curly haired young man in "The Museum Goer," who turns to the lens with such intensity it seems like he is scrutinizing the photographer while the photographer is simultaneously scrutinizing him.
"His face was very intense," Mr. Goodman says. "I observed him looking at the artworks so intently. I wondered if he might be an art critic, he was studying them so thoroughly. So I came up behind him and asked, in my best French, if I might take his picture. I had my finger on the shutter and I didn’t want him to pose. So as he whirled around, I took the picture. Then he asked me why I wanted to take his picture. But I was so nervous and in my broken French, all I could think to say was ‘I like the color of your shirt.’"
The photographer observed another sartorially "splendid" subject in "L’Ecrivain," which shows a professorial looking man, dressed in bright multicolored clothing, including a baggy pair of pants with a Keith Haring-esque design, intently writing in a café near the Sorbonne in Paris.
"Then he has his half glasses down on his nose and a cigarette dangling from his mouth," Mr. Goodman says. "His outfit and bearing is the opposite of ‘professorial.’ Yet he was writing with such intensity. The viewer is left with a question why is this intellectual looking person dressed like a clown? And the print on his pants looks almost aboriginal. I wondered if he might have been an anthropologist."
The show includes a wall filled with Mr. Goodman’s quirky portraits, some taken candidly, while others are posed shots of his friends at Rutgers. One of the most poignant is "Miryam," a remembrance of a barmaid from a small French town in Provence the ideal of innocence with her silky blond hair and freckled skin.
Mr. Goodman is a professor of physical chemistry emeritus at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He’s been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, awarded for his work in laser spectroscopy, spent time at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris and at University College, University of London.
His interest in photography was sparked three years ago when Ms. Goodman presented him with a digital camera.
"He was going to retire and I figured it was better for him to start in on something he was interested in before then," she says. Ms. Goodman implies that her husband’s curious mind might grow restless if he didn’t have something creative to do after he left full-time work. Besides, the act of creativity especially observing people and hunting for photos keeps the mind sharp. Just knowing there might be something to see "out there" boosts the spirit.
It wasn’t long after he got the camera that Mr. Goodman began participating in juried shows and receiving awards from such venues as Phillips’ Mill in New Hope. His photographs can be seen at the Salmagundi Club in New York and the Moments of Life Exhibition at the Stepping Stone Gallery in Huntington, N.Y.
The Goodmans are enthusiastic travelers and his pictures reflect people and scenery from their visits to France and Scotland, as well as Florida, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. Mr. Goodman also found interesting subjects on the train, traveling via Amtrak Number 98.
"Photography is a good contrast to my science interests, which I’m still pursuing," Mr. Goodman says. "I’m still publishing and doing research at Rutgers, so I’m splitting my time between the science and my other interests, like photography."
Mr. Goodman came to Rutgers from Penn State about 35 years ago. The couple landed briefly in East Brunswick but soon discovered Princeton and have been in love with the borough since. Both enjoy Princeton’s walkability, cosmopolitan flair and the culturally supportive community.
With almost as much intensity as he cogitates on chemistry, Mr. Goodman has been studying great photographers, coming to especially admire Diane Arbus, Edward Weston and Paul Outerbridge.
One black-and-white studio shot resembles one of Weston’s sensuous green peppers and differs from the rest of Mr. Goodman’s work. A nude woman is posed in what looks like a yoga position, twisted up like a pretzel, the stark black background a contrast to her fair skin.
"I think Rodin’s ‘Thinker’ was more of an influence on that shot," Mr. Goodman says, reflecting on the way the artist got his subjects to flex until they were more like sculptural forms than human beings. "He was trying to put in stone the mood of a human being. I’ve tried to reverse that."
Unguarded Moments: A Photography Exhibit by Lionel Goodman is on view at the Plainsboro Public Library Gallery, 641 Plainsboro Road, Plainsboro, through July 2. Reception and "art chat," June 19, 3-5 p.m. Gallery hours: Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Tues., Thurs. 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For information, call (609) 275-2897. On the Web: www.lmxac.org/plainsboro/.