Pictures by Ewing photographer Aubrey Kauffman are being featured at an exhibition at the Trenton Free Public Library this month.
The Trenton Artists Workshop Association and the library are presenting the exhibition “Art from Art News Writers and Photojournalists” through March 25.
TAWA is a Greater Trenton nonprofit organization and has a 40-year history organizing exhibits in such venues as the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton City Museum, Artworks Trenton, Prince Street Gallery in New York City, and more.
Kauffman writes arts and photography articles for Community News Service (publisher of the Ewing Observer) and is a past photo and video journalist for New Jersey Network.
His photos focus on the urban landscape and man’s impact on the environment. He was president of TAWA from 1987 through 1996. His work is included in the collections of the NJ State Museum, Rider University, and Johnson and Johnson’s Corporate Headquarters.
Kauffman has been a longtime artistic presence in Trenton and central New Jersey.
“Urban studies have long been a major part of my photographic practice,” Kauffman says. “My work extends from abandoned urban structures and shopping malls to building facades, parks, and ball fields.”
Kauffman says that many of his images are devoid of activity and human interaction.
“I am drawn to these unoccupied spaces because of the architecture and the visual interaction with the surrounding landscape,” he says. “I am also intrigued by the vision that takes shape in my viewfinder. My interest lies not in the portrayal of teams, sports, or players but in the visual elements of where play takes place. For me, ‘It’s not about the game.’”
In addition to exhibiting at Rider University, the New Jersey State Museum, Allentown Art Museum, Newark Museum, and 7th Street Gallery in New York City, Kauffman was a longtime photojournalist for New Jersey Network and gallery manager for Mason Gross School of the Arts Gallery in New Brunswick.
As president for TAWA, he coordinated the regionally important Trenton City Museum exhibition and publication “Trenton Takes: 24 Hours in the City.”
For that project, Kauffman coordinated a team of photographers to capture a simple day of life in the capital city.
Born in Princeton, Kauffman grew up in Lawrence Township. His father worked at U.S. Steel, and his mother was a clerical worker. He graduated from Lawrence High School in 1971, took classes at Mercer County Community College, and received a degree in broadcast production from Jersey City State College.
Kauffman says that it was the broadcast curriculum that connected him to the art form for which he is known. “Photography was required, and it was a way to express myself. I had never taken any art. It was a new experience.”
Kauffman credits Mercer County Community College instructor and veteran photographer William Barksdale for opening a world to him. “He had a great influence. He was like one of the old masters. He had been teaching for years so he knew how to get a student to understand what good photography was.”
Asked to define “a good photograph,” Kauffman, in his well-known soft voice, says, “It’s a (technically) well executed print, with a well rounded idea, one that helps you see your feelings and ideas and intuitions come across in what you’re trying to portray. You can look at a certain artist’s work and know it’s by that artist.”
Kauffman says that after graduating from Jersey City he attended Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts, and met Ron Walker, the eventual chairman of the photo/film department.
“He introduced me to the work of others who had accomplished what I was trying to do. In a sense, he helped me find my voice. I consider Ron my biggest influence as both a friend and teacher. We’ve kept in touch over the years. He’s now a vice president at Rider. One of my photographs is hanging in his office.”
For years Kauffman—who lives in Ewing with his wife, Michele, and has a studio in Trenton—labored to create crisp black-and-white images that frequently celebrate structures found along New Jersey highways and roads. Recently he has carefully introduced color into his arrangement and—through the use of a Nikon D800 and its ability to capture large files—he is experimenting with print scale.
“When I came (to Mason Gross) I had access to printers 40 inches by 60 inches. You almost feel like you’re walking into the photograph. It brings out the visual elements that I emphasize: a sense of architecture, straight line, and minimalist.”
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Other artists participating in the TAWA exhibition are listed below.
Ricardo Barros is an arts contributing writer to Icon magazine, Bucks County PA, and an internationally known photographer and has done artwork commissioned by Fortune 500 companies. Barros has work in the permanent collections of several museums including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. Barros lives in Princeton.
Ilene Dube is a producer for the PBS series “State of the Arts” and a contributor to tristate media including Princeton Magazine, JerseyArts Features, and Hyperallergic. Her independently produced short documentaries have been screened at the New Jersey Film Festival, Nassau Film Festival, Trenton Film Festival, Princeton Environmental Film Festival, and at arts centers and libraries. Her art, which she considers play, has been exhibited in the Hopewell Tour des Arts, Phillips Mill, Hobart Art in the Native Landscape, Ellarslie Not Quite Open and Salon des Refuses, West Windsor Arts Council, and others. Dube lives in West Windsor.
John Gummere is an arts reviewer for The Trenton Journal. He is an award-winning artist and has exhibited at the d’Art Centre in Norfolk, Virginia, Alfa Art Gallery in New Brunswick, and Marblehead Art Association in Massachusets and is currently exhibiting in several venues in the greater Trenton area. His oil paintings on canvas use a representational style, with an emphasis on city scenes, landscapes, and interior compositions. Some of his favorite painters include Edward Hopper, John Sloan, and landscape painters of the 1800s. Gummere lives in Morrisville.
Thomas Kelly writes reviews for the Community News Service and is an award-winning painter. Widely collected, his work has a signature style, which has its roots in Expressionism. His colorful, narrative, acrylic paintings on canvas often create a dialogue with the viewer. Kelly’s work can be seen at Walter Wickiser Gallery NYC; Bethlehem House Gallery in Pennsylvania; The Artful Deposit Gallery in Bordentown; and Beauregard Fine Art in Rumson. Kelly lives in Hamilton Township.
Janet Purcell has been an arts writer for The Times of Trenton for more than 25 years. She also contributes to Woman’s Day, Design NJ Magazine, and freelances for various magazine publications. She has written several fiction publications, including “Singer Lane,” “The Long Way Home,” and “Rooster Street-Legacy of a Runaway Slave.” She works primarily in oils and pastels. Purcell has shown her work in several venues, including Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie; Brodsky Gallery, Chauncey Conference Center; RF Gallery at Prallsville Mill, Stockton; and Jewish Community Center, Trenton. Purcell lives in Hopewell Township.
Trenton Free Public Library, 120 Academy Street. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 609-392-7188.
For more information on TAWA, visit the organization’s Facebook page.
Photographer Aubrey Kauffman, a Ewing resident, stands in front of his works at an exhibition at the Mercer County Community College JKC Gallery in 2017.,
