Jersey City 2009: The Dan McNulty Project

Jersey City 2009: The Dan McNulty Project is the culmination of my learning experience through imagery. Dan McNulty was a photographer who lived in Jersey City and photographed it from the years 1940 through 1960. The intent of his images are unclear. There is a possibility that he photographed for the purpose of real estate, but nothing has actually been documented about his life and experience with his camera. For what his images are worth, I would say he painted a good picture of what Jersey City was like at the time, for both its people and place.
My intent for this project is to forego my creative license. In throwing away my own eyes, I found new eyes, resurrected. I want to remain humbled by the fact that any image you can possibly take has already been taken. Dan McNulty’s name will live on through his photographs. In re-photographing his work, a man who I have never met and no nothing about, I feel the essence of a loud conversation. Moving the camera to be compositionally accurate means I am finding the place he actually stood almost 60 years ago. It is in this conversation that I can tell him that his photographs are not dead; they are very much living documents, and the conversation between him, myself, or anyone, can continue forever.