From the vantage point of his childhood home at the cross-section of Alexander Road and Scott Avenue, Joe Ryan thought he knew every inch of West Windsor. For years, when he wasn’t walking to the local shopping center, train station, or high school—all conveniently close by—he would regularly bike or drive over every inch of the town he loved.
But at the beginning of this year, the now 53-year-old IT specialist returned from his current home in a Philadelphia suburb and surprised himself by discovering new areas off Route 1 that he had never encountered.
“I looked on a map and found that there’s a trail that walks in from Washington Road,” Ryan said during a recent Google Chat conversation. “You walk in about 10 minutes and there’s an unseen view of the train bridge. I’d been in the town my whole life and didn’t even know it was there.”
As a reward for his effort, Ryan used his faithful Nikon D610 to capture a striking image of the Princeton Dinky train crossing over the bridge on its way to its regular destination in Princeton Junction.
Nearby, north of the intersection of Washington Road and Route 1, he also found the Penns Neck Cemetery, also known as the Schenk-Kovenhoven Cemetery, where he took several more photos, including one of the town’s oldest tombstones, which dates back to 1746.
“I’ve always loved history and asked the West Windsor Historical Society online what and where the oldest headstone was in town, and they mentioned this one,” says Ryan. “The only thing you can see on the stone are the letters ‘ml’. They don’t even know who it is.”
These photos and many more can be found in Ryan’s recently released 114-page debut book Images of West Windsor, New Jersey, which is currently available for purchase online via Amazon, with other outlets to follow soon.
The book, which showcases a wide variety of areas in the town, isn’t meant to be a thorough highlight reel. Instead, Ryan intended the book to be both a journey of his three decades as a photographer as well as a nostalgic ode to a place that seems to resonate with him more and more as he gets older.
“Anyone who is looking for a definitive history book of West Windsor should get Paul Ligeti’s book (“West Windsor Then and Now: A New Perspective,” see U.S. 1, Aug. 10, 2022), which is a must-have for anyone interested in the history of the town,” says Ryan. “I hope my book brings back memories for those who grew up there or who moved away. The town has changed so fast. I feel it’s very important to save some of those everyday sites that we remember for the future.”
When Ryan first picked up a camera back in 1991, West Windsor had a population of just over 15,000 residents. Armed with the precious Canon AT-1 that his father had bought him, he felt a kinship with the field while taking photography classes at Mercer County Community College. When not attending school, he could often be found improving his craft by taking pictures of sites around town or sneaking his camera into live rock concerts.
By 1993, a publicist for the jam band Grateful Dead was impressed enough with his photos that he granted Ryan a press pass to shoot at their concert at Giants Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey. A fanzine related to the group published the photos, and Ryan was granted access to follow-up shows.
“Looking back, I had very little experience understanding the camera and how it reacted to natural lighting and stage lighting,” recalls Ryan. “I don’t know what I would be doing if it wasn’t for the Dead. They opened up all kinds of doors for me.”
The list of bands that Ryan took pictures of afterward could fill up a book, one that he may even work on soon. Acts he filmed included the Allman Brothers, Duran Duran, James Taylor, and LCD Soundsystem. There was also a tour across the Southwest with Austin, Texas-based roots band The Gourds.
But the two acts Ryan claims to have vibed with the most are legendary New York rock band Blondie and the New Zealand-based alternative group The Church. Ryan claims a photo book of the former is a possibility in the future. As for the latter, he points to a recent band tour poster hanging on his living room wall. “You see this?” he exclaims. “That’s my photo on their poster. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t let a group do that, but they’re so nice and I love them so much.”
Over the years, as Ryan worked to perfect his craft, he claims to have learned a lot about making the most of the natural light, painstakingly developing his photos in a dark room and experimenting with the endless variations available via the photo editing software known as Photoshop.
“I was always interested in angles and storylines and didn’t realize for a long time that it was photography that I was really into,” he says. “Freezing a moment always represented another world to me, and I wanted to learn that.”
As he improved, Ryan switched to a Nikon and spent whatever spare time he had taking pictures of West Windsor, the best of which are in his book. He snapped whatever resonated or had “soul” as he calls it, whether that was a dilapidated red barn on North Post Road, the middle school he attended in Dutch Neck, the classic Aljon’s pizza shop in the pre-renovated shopping center, or the fire station across from his home.
At the top of his list was always Grovers Mill, which he considers to be the ultimate heart and soul of the town. “It’s got the most spirit,” Ryan enthuses. “There’s something special about it.”
He recalls a time during the 1980s when the family’s landlord told them he was in Florida when the famous Orson Welles broadcast was on the radio. Fearing that his home was destroyed, he immediately drove all the way back, only to find that the news broadcast was, in fact, a hoax.
“I heard that from a few of the old-timers, so those stories always stuck with me,” says Ryan. “So, the pond, the mill, the water tower. There’s a beauty and energy there and that’s why they’re my favorite photos in the book.”
When it came to assembling the hundreds, if not thousands of photos Ryan had taken over three decades, he learned that he had to consider certain legalities. For instance, it’s illegal to include people’s homes without permission, just as he couldn’t include West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South without consent.
Instead, Ryan painstakingly considered the design elements that he wanted for his debut, as well as creating what he calls “flow”. “It’s just a seamless collection of shots that were taken over 30 years, and I want people to think about when they lived in West Windsor and perhaps it will take them back to their childhood,” he says.
Even though “Images of West Windsor” seems to call for a sequel, Ryan claims he’s not thinking of one. At the moment, he has his hands full with consulting work, married life, and two teenage sons. He says other books, like the aforementioned concert tome, or a potential exploration of his family’s roots in Ireland, would take precedence.
Still, the experience of putting together his debut also made him fully appreciate West Windsor more than he ever did before. “There was a vibe there,” he says. “I’m so fortunate that we grew up there. I mean, I could ride my bike anywhere. It was amazing. I don’t know if I appreciated that at the time, but I do now.”
Images of West Windsor, New Jersey by Joe Ryan is currently available via Amazon’s online website.
Lenny Anklowitz, third from right wearing teal and grey, owner of the Beverage Barn liquor store on Clarksville Road, stands with his crew in front of the business in a 1994 photo from the book “Images of West Windsor, New Jersey” by Joe Ryan. The store was torn down a short time later to make way for the Village Square shopping center. (Photo by Joe Ryan.),
West Windsor native Joe Ryan’s recently released his book “Images of West Windsor, New Jersey.”,
