Although he has lived and worked in the Ewing area his whole life, photographer Aubrey Kauffman is looking to discover art amidst the familiar when he trains his camera at the urban landscape.
Kauffman’s “It’s Not About the Game” photo exhibition will be unveiled Dec. 8, at the Lawrenceville School’s Marguerite & James Hutchins Gallery and will be on view through Jan. 23, 2015.
“This is part of my larger body of work that I refer to as urban studies, my relationship to an ever changing environment, how I interact with urban architecture,” said Kauffman, whose recent work has been exhibited in New York, the Biggs Museum of American Art in Delaware, and as far as Dayton, Ohio.
“I know I want to go to an industrial area, but I’m not sure what I’m going to see,” he said. “There’s an element of discovery, which is something I look forward to when I shoot. Finding something or discovering a new way of seeing something.”
Art Master and director of the Hutchins Gallery at the Lawrenceville School Jamie Greenfield approached Kauffman after seeing the photos available on his website.
Kauffman also happens to have grown up across the street from the Lawrenceville School. His mother and uncle also worked there, while his father worked at U.S. Steel. However, Kauffman attended Lawrence High School, graduating in 1971.
He did not settle far, eventually moving to Ewing where he also worked for the New Jersey Network (NJN) public television station as a video producer for more than 30 years before the state of New Jersey pulled the plug on the station in 2011. He still resides in Ewing with his wife Michele Woods, who works at a mutual fund. The couple recently celebrated their 10-year anniversary with a trip to the Caribbean.
“After NJN was closed down and everyone was fired, I was deciding what I was going to do after that. I had put my camera down for a couple years, and I started shooting and exhibiting again,” Kauffman said.
In addition Kauffman applied to the Mason Gross School of Arts and received his master of fine arts in 2013.
He is currently the school’s gallery manager, and the mission is to give students opportunities to show their work in photography, painting, sculpture, graphic design and other media.
In addition, he has taught photography there, as well as at Middlesex Community College and the Community College of Philadelphia. He is also a contributing writer at U.S. 1, one of the Ewing Observer’s sister newspapers.
This semester he is teaching Intro to Digital Photography at Mercer County Community College, coincidentally the school where he took his first formal photography course. It was a formative experience that connected him to a new art form.
“I’ve done a lot of photographs as a kid, but I had not picked up a camera in years,” Kauffman said. “I had to buy a camera, a Konica Rangefinder 35mm. I remember not being successful with the first couple of rolls I shot, just in terms of the technical method. When I finally got a hold of the technical process, I could concentrate on the visual process. Learning the camera.”
Veteran photographer William Barksdale was the instructor at Mercer who helped Kauffman understand good photography, and as a novice Kauffman shot his environment, such as his neighborhood.
Kauffman later got his degree in broadcast production from Jersey City State College, where he took additional classes in photography. He began working in videography for New Jersey public broadcasting, but he also flirted with the idea of commercial photography, specifically fashion.
Graduate coursework at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts, under Ron Walker dissuaded him from that path.
“Ron made me aware of work that other photographers were doing, photography history. He helped me with the technical process,” Kauffman said. “At that time I was shooting with a four by five view camera. He helped me make sense of what I was going for. The vision was there, he helped you refine it. He helped me get technical control. He always kept challenging me.”
Developing his own vision, Kauffman sought out to generate his own work, as opposed to pursuing assignment-based commercial photography.
“I wanted to have my own vision to create what I wanted to create,” Kauffman said.
The Trenton Artists Workshop Association (TAWA) provided the outlet for Kauffman’s work, hosting his first exhibit in the late 1970s as part of the TAWA Summer Series at the Trenton City Museum.
“TAWA was instrumental in helping artists hold exhibits at the Trenton City Museum. I had been in a couple group shows and this was the first exhibit where I showed a major body of work. It pretty much set the stage for what I was pursuing in terms of urban landscape.”
Kauffman has since served as president of TAWA and coordinated numerous projects, including a 1995 Trenton City Museum exhibition and publication “Trenton Takes: 24 Hours in the City.” Based on the Time-Life Series “A Day in the Life of America,” Kauffman coordinated a team of 29 photographers to capture life in Trenton over a 24-hour period.
In 2009, Kauffman converted from film to digital, which was a way for him to accelerate production. Not only did this mean shooting with a digital camera, but also shooting in color.
“Color was never a concern in shooting black and white. Occasionally I’m shooting things in color — it’s not the main focus. I’m looking at visual elements, like how I compose things in a frame. What is your relationship to the object?”
Kauffman does not focus on the human experience either, though they may appear in his photos. Rather the emphasis is on urban landscapes, and he primarily shoots in the tri-state area.
“I have an idea of where I’m going to go, but I’m not sure what I’m going to bring back,” Kauffman said. “I’m not scheduling safari type photo trips. To me it’s just a very singular experience. I’m sort of by myself, I’m not interacting with anyone when I’m shooting.”
For aspiring photographers, Kauffman’s advice is straightforward. “You’re going to get discouraged but don’t give up. Things may not work out, you may miss out on the job, but keep trying.”
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