Gene Ahrens photographed the United States and Canada with a 4x5 Linhof Technika camera for four decades. Specializing in landscapes and nature, his stock also includes all 48 contiguous U.S. states and each state capitol.
Charles Arlia of Margate has been making fine art, abstract, and scenic photographs since the early 1980s and his work is often found on display in juried shows at the Atlantic City and Ocean City art centers.
David Barbara has traveled the Jersey Shore to photograph marine life and coastal scenics since 1991. He gives lectures on whales, dolphins, porpoises, and cetaceans to many organizations and lives in Edison.
Rebecca Barger, a staff photojournalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer since 1985, has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes. She has traveled to 45 countries, however always finds time to vacation at the New Jersey shore.
Michael Baytoff’s photography has appeared in numerous national and international publications such as Time, Natural History, Audubon, and Wildlife Conservation as well as exhibitions including a traveling National Geographic environmental exhibit. A photojournalist specializing in documentary and environmental work, he is affiliated with the Black Star agency in New York.
Bob Birdsall, along with his wife Jean, operates Birdsall Nature Photography in Barnegat Light. They specialize in images of the New Jersey Pinelands and the Jersey Shore.
William Bretzger is a staff photographer at The News Journal in Wilmington Del., where he lives. A native of Eatontown, N.J., he first picked up a camera as a journalism student at Trenton State College before studying photojournalism at Ohio University. Documenting the Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg is a long-term project he is pursuing.
Margaret Thomas Buchholz is the author of Shipwrecks: 350 Years in the Graveyard of the Atlantic, co-author of Great Storms of the Jersey Shore, editor of the historical anthology Shore Chronicles: Diaries and Travelers’ Tales from the Jersey Shore 1764-1955, and Seasons in the Sun, a pictorial history. She is editor of The Beachcomber, a weekly newspaper on Long Beach Island, where she lives.
Donna Connor is a professional photographer with more than 25 years experience in photojournalism, portraiture and, most recently, travel photography. Her work has appeared in publications ranging from People and Time to Sports Illustrated and her clients include Atlantic City and Las Vegas casinos, numerous healthcare organizations and colleges, and an international law firm. Shooting in both corporate environments and real life situations, her love of people and the discovery of their stories makes her portraiture a collaborative effort. She resides with her family in Sweetwater, New Jersey.
Thomas Connor, a resident of Doylestown, Pa., and Beach Haven, N.J., specializes in nature studies, landscapes and seascapes. He has traveled extensively throughout North America for his subjects yet finds some of his most satisfying material along the New Jersey Shore and in the pinelands. His work is featured in various art shows and has been included in the Down The Shore Calendar. He was honored with first place in the Tinicum (Bucks County, Pa.) Arts Festival’s 52nd annual juried exhibition for "Winter On The Island" and "Happy Days."
John T. Cunningham, described by the New Jersey Historical Commission as New Jersey's "best known popular historian" and by Rutgers University as "Mr. Jersey" when it gave him an honorary degree, has written 48 books, more than 2,000 articles and 18 documentary films on the state. His first book, This Is New Jersey, published in 1953, is still in print in its sixth revised edition. He is currently finishing a book on the Revolutionary War "dark winter" of 1779-70 in Morristown and is also at work on a revision of his well-known, but long out-of-print classic, The New Jersey Shore.
Rosemary A. Dixon, of Lanoka Harbor, N.J., is a retired C.P.A. who travels the world — from Holland to the Fiji Islands — to scuba dive and photograph (lighthouses, in particular). Her published articles and photographs about lighthouses include a recent profile of the creator of the U.S. Lighthouse postage stamp series.
Keith Drexler, of Manville, N.J., makes his living as a printing press operator, but spends his free time photographing beaches, boardwalks, and lighthouses along the Jersey Shore.
Nancy L. Erickson’s photographs have appeared in numerous regional and national magazines, calendars and books. She and her husband Bill have operated New Wave Photography in Laurel Springs, N.J., since 1991.
Susan Federici, a pilot for 33 years, has been a flight instructor for most of that time, and worked as a corporate pilot for two decades. Specializing in aerial photographs, she "wanted others to see the view from a higher perspective," she says. "I have flown the Jersey Shore area for most of my life and, whether speeding over it at 35,000 feet in a jet or flying low and slow along the beach in a single engine airplane, I never tire of its beauty."
Valerie Fenelon has been making photographs of the shore for nearly 25 years, as well as fine art portraits and special occasions. A graduate of Moore College of Art, in Philadelphia, she operates North End Trilogy, an art gallery featuring local and shore artists, in Barnegat Light.
Ray Fisk joined college friends in 1977 to establish The SandPaper on Long Beach Island — his first encounter with the Jersey Shore. He worked there as Associate Editor, and then as a photojournalist for The New York Times, United Press International, and The Philadelphia Inquirer throughout the 1980s, covering Atlantic City, the shore, and southern New Jersey. He founded Down The Shore Publishing in 1984.
Sandy Gingras is the author and illustrator of six books including The Uh-oh Heart, How to Live on an Island, How to Live at the Beach, How to be a Friend and Reasons to be Happy at the Beach, and is the creator of At the Beach House: A Guest Book. A graduate of Hamilton College, she received an M.A. in English from Duke University and an M.A. in counseling from Rider College. The owner of "How to Live," a design and gift company and retail store in Beach Haven, she lives with her son Morgan, 14, on Long Beach Island.
Steve Greer, who grew up in the Canadian Rockies — "a magical place in which to learn the fundamentals of landscape photography," is an award winning photographer and natural history writer whose work has been featured in hundreds of publications worldwide. His images have appeared on magazine covers, calendars, greeting cards, advertising and educational materials. With an appreciation and enthusiasm for the natural world, he believes that honest, compelling photography can change the way people react to their environment, enabling them to make better decisions concerning the protection of open spaces.
Henry R. Hegeman, a resident of southern Ocean County, N.J., works for a consulting engineering firm, but has been a freelance writer and photographer for 30 years, specializing in hunting and fishing subjects. His work has appeared in numerous books, magazines, and calendars.
John Henrici is an amateur photographer residing in California, but whose heart is somewhere between Tuckerton and Leeds Point. He spent summers as a child in Lavalette, where he learned to surf, and graduated in 1976 from Stockton State College, living in and around pre-casino Atlantic City. "Invariably sunset would find me somewhere around the Mullica or Wading Rivers," he says, and he’d "follow the creeks up into the pines a bit. Rusty places. Old boats. There was simply too much to shoot. I learned to appreciate the awesome beauty of the bayshore." With his wife, Michelle, he moved to California, where they are both teachers, but "had these vivid South Jersey dreams, the residue of having stared at it so much."
Susan P. Hill-Doyle grew up on Long Beach Island and began capturing her native shore in pictures at age nine. She received a B.A. in studio art from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and now divides her time between photography, teaching elementary school art, and raising her sons Harry and Jack. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, galleries, and art shows. "Capturing a moment when everything is in perfect balance — light, subject, and atmosphere — is what my work is all about," she says.
Cornelius Hogenbirk served as a U. S. Army Signal Corps photographer in Japan during the occupation, covering the Yokohama war crimes trials. His first camera was a Brownie Hawkeye box camera, at age 10 in 1927. His scenic photographs of southern New Jersey, the Pine Barrens, and the shore have appeared in many regional publications. Retired, living in Waretown, N.J., he now devotes his time to gardening and nature photography.
Stephen Jasiecki has been photographing in the southern New Jersey shore for the past 20 years. He works as an electrician and resides in Egg Harbor Township, N.J..
Mike Jones spent ten years as a photojournalist, six of those years as the staff photographer with The Coast Star in Manasquan, before pursuing a full time freelance career. His father taught him to use his old Pentax SLR at age 10, and by the end of high school he was using a 4x5 Graflex. During summer vacations in Maine, he would climb around the rocky shore with a camera and tripod rather than visiting downtown Bar Harbor with his family. Currently shooting travel images and landscapes across the U.S., he makes use of a Toyo view camera and Mamiya RZ-67 medium format camera. He lives in Toms River.
With stock of over 25,000 images, Donald T. Kelly’s nature and travel photographs have been published in formats ranging from calendars, postcards, notecards, and bookmarks to electronic media, encyclopedias, and other books and magazines, as well as displayed in exhibitions. A resident of Mays Landing, he makes his living as a union electrician, but has been a dedicated photographer for more than 25 years, selling his work professionally for the last seven. Photography is only one of his artistic passions, however; he is also a writer and painter, and has been a pianist and composer for over 30 years, having written over 100 compositions for piano, duets for piano and violin, and choral anthems.
For over a decade, photographer Patti Kelly has documented the environment along the Jersey Shore from the beaches to the back bays. Her award-wining work appears in magazines, newspapers, and books illustrating the people and places of New Jersey. Patti Kelly received a BA in Journalism from Temple University.
Michael J. Kilpatrick operates a nature photography guide service specializing in New Jersey coastal marsh and seashore subjects. A resident of Lindenwold, N.J., and originally from North Wildwood, his work has appeared in national publications, including Nature Conservancy magazine and Ducks Unlimited.
Rich A. King spends much of his life, since the mid-1980s, in the back bay marshes of Island Beach State Park, often sitting in a blind poised with his cameras. He is, admittedly, obsessed with the estuary, and when not making photographs there, he is giving lectures, slide shows, and educational programs on the estuary food chain, wildlife, and the bayshore environment. He makes his living as a plumber in Toms River. Of his passion for this ecosystem, he says: "What I look for is to open people’s eyes."
A doctor of optometry in Freehold, Edward Kulback, finds his creative outlet working with his camera equipment in manual mode to "slow down the process, and think about what is being captured on film."
The nature and scenic photography of Daniel Leach, of Hatfield, Pa., has gone from a serious hobby in the 1980’s to a part-time profession since 1996.
Manny Lekkas received his photography education at the New York Institute of Photography, has won awards for his work at numerous New Jersey art shows, and has been published in Nature Photographer, Peterson’s Photographic, New Jersey Outdoors, and other publications. He currently resides in Winston Salem, N.C.
Burton E. Lipman’s photographs have been widely published in magazines and newspapers and have won top prizes in juried contests. A resident of East Brunswick, N.J., he has had a varied career: as president and C.E.O. of a Lehman Brothers Co. subsidiary; founder and president of a heart-pacer component manufacturer; and vice-president of operations for Wyeth and Lever Brothers companies. He is also the author of technical books published by John Wiley, Prentice-Hall, and Bell Publishing.
Judie Lynn, a retail store manager in Ocean County, laments that she has little time for her photography anymore. However, with a career change into real estate, she looks forward to more flexible scheduling that will allow her to once again to pursue her passion of photography.
Robert Manners grew up in Trenton, and served as a photographer in the U.S. Army. He resided in Manahawkin for many years and now lives in Atlantic City, where he works for the Hilton Casino.
Bob Manning is employed as a Senior Business Analyst at Computer Aid Inc. in Wilmington, Del., and is a part time wedding photographer. His love of photography began in the first grade when he took a picture with an old Brownie box camera. He was influenced by his mother, who as a single parent working out of the home, supported Bob and his brother by hand coloring and painting photographs for the top photographers of the day. A graduate of the New York Institute of Photography, his photographs have been exhibited in shows from northern New Jersey to the Jersey Shore to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Thomas A. McGuire became an award-winning photographer, focusing on the Jersey Shore and participating in art shows throughout the state. During the 1990s, many of his images were included in the Down The Shore calendars. He delighted in sharing his work, and when praised for it, would say, "God created the image. I just snap it." He died in 2003, after a valiant battle with cancer, but his work lives on to inspire us.
Don Merwin resides in Cape May.
Michael S. Miller’s work has been published in calendars and in local and national publications and is included in private collections and galleries. A graduate of the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he is also a long-time guide for the Monmouth County Park System, and resides with his wife in Avon-by-the-Sea.
Robert S. Misewich bought his first 35mm camera while serving overseas in the army in 1960. He became a dedicated nature photographer in 1996, after retiring from a 31-year career as a field engineer with Lucent Technologies. A resident of Turnersville, N.J., his travels up and down the east coast have produced images published in Birder’s World and other publications.
Melissa Molyneux is a freelance photojournalist in the New York region, working for magazine and newspaper clients such as the Star Ledger, The New York Times, and stock agencies from her home in Basking Ridge. A graduate of the Pratt Institute with a B.F.A. in photography, she studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. Staying true to her fine art roots she applies her fine art training to her passion for photojournalism.
Peter Keenen O’Brien has contributed to the Down The Shore calendars for a decade and one of his photographs appears on the cover of the novel Tales From An Endless Summer. He follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather as a photographer, first borrowing his father’s camera for a cross-country trip during high school. Born and raised in Bayonne, he graduated from Seton Hall in 1978 and earned a masters of divinity at the university’s graduate school of theology. With an interest in ecclesiastical art, he has contributed to documentaries, most recently as an associate producer on the film "An Unreliable Witness" during filming in Ireland.
For Rob Pietri, the Jersey Shore was a great place to grow up in the mid 1960s and the 1970s. Summers were spent fishing with his Dad for stripers, blues, and blowfish or snorkeling off the jetties, spear fishing, crabbing; then, as a teen, surfing and lifeguarding. "Now, at midlife crisis stage, I am glad I can capture in my photography some of the feelings and flavors of what was once enjoyed by myself and others. Open your eyes and hear the music," he says.
Over the last ten years J.J. Raia has tried to photograph every corner of New Jersey in all seasons for his calendars and continues to discover new places all the time. In addition, he has now begun to photograph the landscapes of the western U.S. but continues to make a living running trains for Amtrak and lives in Edison with his wife and two children.
Dan Rogers lives in Lancaster County, Pa., and works as a construction manager but has been shooting scenic photography for almost 30 years. His serious interest in photography began while doing documentary photography as an archeologist in West Virginia.
Dan Ryan, of Highlands, N.J., has been taking pictures since his father gave him a Kodak pocket camera with flash cubes as a teenager. He works in the field of training support and incorporates photography into his work.
Larry Savadove is the author two novels — The Oyster Singer and The Sound of One Hand — a cookbook, Melting Pot West, and co-author of Great Storms of the Jersey Shore. A graduate of Harvard College, he has lived in Japan, Latin America, and Los Angeles, but spent every summer of his boyhood on Long Beach Island and returned to settle there after years of wandering the world as a sailor, a soldier, a journalist, an adman, and a maker of award-winning documentaries, most notably "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau." His two children are also veterans of Long Beach Island; he is at work on two more novels, also set at the shore.
After working in television for over twelve years, Brien Szabo switched careers to become a professional nature photographer and stay-at-home dad. He specializes in capturing diverse natural images of his home state of New Jersey and the northeast. He's been published in magazines, teaches photography, and hosts nature photography workshops throughout the region.
Pat Totten has been photographing the Jersey Shore for the past 30 years. Since retiring from teaching chemistry she has traveled extensively, taking her camera to every continent to pursue her passion for photography. Much of her travel is centered around astronomical events, such as eclipses and meteor showers. In November 2003 she was part of a small group of the first humans ever to see a total solar eclipse from Antarctica.
Frank L. Varkala has concentrated on the Jersey Shore and the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire as a photographer for 13 years, and, recently, has begun shooting casual portraits and weddings. A 1974 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and long-time resident of southern Ocean County, N.J., he now lives in Vermont.
Sally Vennel and her husband divide their time between Surf City, N.J. and Crested Butte, Colo. Her work has been featured in calendars and art shows in both locations and in California. She says her photography takes her "to many beautiful places, including numerous safaris in Africa."
Rick Vizzi has been photographing nature and subjects of his interest since he was 10 and, although he received a B.A. in art from William Paterson University and Rutgers, never had "professional" jobs as a photographer other than a few years shooting weddings and some newspaper features. "I decided not to try to make a living at it, which allowed me to pursue it my way." A historic restoration contractor for almost twenty years, his latest pursuit is woodturning. His goal is to make fine prints of as many of his photographs as possible, and to exhibit them. "I have some things I'd like to communicate," he says, "more than just showing a collection of photos."
David Lorenz Winston’s lifelong love of the natural landscape has taken him on travels from his home in Philadelphia throughout the U.S. and to Siberia, Peru, India, Nepal, Tibet, Greece, Portugal and Nova Scotia. His work has appeared in calendars and on cards published by Pomegranate, Brown Trout, UNICEF, the National Wildlife Federation, Hallmark, and Recycled Paper Products. He is working on the photography for a series of children’s books about farm life, the first of which was the award-winning Life on a Pig Farm.
Rich Youmans is a magazine and book editor who has specialized in the history and literature of the Jersey Shore. He is the editor of Shore Stories: An Anthology of the Jersey; co-editor, with Frank Finale, of Under a Gull's Wing: Poems and Photographs of the Jersey; and co-author, with Russell Roberts, of Down the Jersey.
