Joseph Meacham, EFFIGY: Ghosts of Asbury Park

June 29 – August 2, 2019

Camerawork Gallery
301 N. Graham Street, Portland, OR 97227
Located in Lorenzen Conference Center – Legacy Emanuel Medical Center Campus.
9am – 6pm, Monday-Saturday, Sunday, 10am-4pm
Free off street parking available, Stair and elevator access, TriMet Routes 4, 24 and 44
www.TheCameraworkGallery.org
www.Facebook.com/cameraworkgallery
503-701-5347
Event is free and open to the public

Rarely seen images of Asbury Park, from the mid-1970s by New Jersey artist and photographer Joseph Meacham, reemerge after more than four decades in his personal archive. ”EFFIGY: Ghosts of Asbury Park” includes 15 images of the collection never shown on the West Coast, and is a personal metaphor embracing a close look at the tough times this shore town saw following the race riots of 1970 and the economic, political and social malaise of 1970’s America.

About his 1970s photographs from Asbury Park Meacham notes, “The place had become a ghost town, but no one told the ghosts. I would return again and again with my old camera to what remained of this sideshow of a city. I felt like the only one eating stale popcorn in the bleachers; watching the actors that couldn’t make eye contact—and I could not look away. I’m happy that today these images stand in stark contrast to the vibrant, creative community Asbury Park has become.”

Joseph Meacham grew up working and photographing in and around Asbury Park. As an adolescent he worked building surfboards in a factory that was also home to Bruce Springsteen and members of his bar band “Steel Mill”. In the 1970s he studied photography with Ray K. Metzger at what’s now the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and later received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Mr. Meacham has exhibited work and lectured throughout the United States and spends time between New York City, Philadelphia and his home in New Jersey. www.JosephMeacham.com