SANDY HOOK – Abandoned houses, empty soldier barracks and overgrown nature. These were some of the subjects Montclair University photography students sought out on Sandy Hook during a summer session at the beach.
For three weeks, eight students were granted all-access passes by Gateway National Park to photograph anything and everything on the 1,665-acre park. They worked with the National Parks Service (NPS) to perform some needed documentation of how Super Storm Sandy damaged the park’s historical structures.
“It’s kind of a trade in a way,” said Klaus Schnitzer, a Montclair University professor in the Department of Art and Design Photography.
Sandra Mueller described how she took aim at a post-apocalyptic feel she felt she found on Sandy Hook.
“This project was primarily inspired by my fascination with abandonment and neglect,” the rising senior said. “I feel that there is something oddly beautiful about structures that are worn down to their basic core. These structures are so impressive because of how barren and surreal they are.”
Catherine Delaney, a 22-year-old art education major, focused on the natural beauty of the barrier peninsula, which has come to overwhelm the deserted military infrastructure.
Her personal project, which will be followed up by a dissertation submitted to Schnitzer, was titled “Nature’s Persistence.”
“Many of my photographs for this project portray nature blanketing buildings or breaking through concrete,” she wrote. “Nature is something that is so beautiful, yet ominous at the same time. This project was a chance to show both those aspects mentioned and what it looks like when nature takes over.”
“I’ve been photographing out there ever since,” he said. “I love the old structures; I think it’s one of the most beautiful beaches on the East Coast. I always tell people ‘you need to go to Sandy Hook’ because you have miles and miles of empty beaches.”
Working with Gateway National Park has been a constant throughout Schnitzer’s career. Along with numerous courses at Sandy Hook, he was a key figure in documenting the restoration of Ellis Island in 1983.
For this project, he sent a proposal to the National Parks Service, which included a proposition to exchange free access for free photography work, and was ultimately approved.
“We were out there ‘til the reopening of Ellis Island, we did a big show with the National Parks
Service, we did a book with Aperture, and one of my students, graduate students, who happened to be taking my summer course, joined the National Parks Service, where he’s been my contact all along,” Schnitzer said.
He has taken Montclair students to essentially every corner of Gateway National Park, which spans nearly 27,000 acres of protected land in New York and New Jersey, throughout his tenure at Montclair.
“When I look at my work over the last 40 years, a big chunk of it is images I’ve found at Sandy Hook,” Schnitzer said, of how he always returns to the Jersey Shore.
For the students, it is also a trip they will not forget.
“Surreal,” Mueller wrote of her experience. “Exploring Sandy Hook takes you to a world that is unlike the busy and stressful lives we are all so used to. Life seems to go by much slower and with a lot less noise. Witnessing structures that have undergone so much damage is very sobering.”
