New Jersey, the 5th smallest state in the US, is also the most densely populated. It’s known as the “Garden State,” but NJ has many other areas of visual interest, including motels, malls, highways, and suburban neighborhoods. Photographing my home state is a labor of love, and I do so with a quirky and ironic nod to the New Topographics photographers of the well-known 1975 exhibit that focused on our modern man-altered landscape.

During the pandemic, NJ did not seem quite as densely populated, with much less traffic than usual and shuttered malls and other venues. We were encouraged to get outside and exercise during this lockdown period, while staying physically distanced from others, so my exercising was done with camera in hand. It is normally quite a challenge to photograph NJ looking so isolated, and I enjoyed photographing this desolation while still finding humor in some of the scenes I encountered.

While I’d never want to see a repeat of our lockdown period, I will wistfully look back at New(Jersey) Topographics and remember the quiet.

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