EXT. TRENTON.SUNRISE.DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.

Shot of KAREN, writer and cinemaphile, at West State Street bus stop. She suddenly turns toward the Capitol dome.

LONG SHOT of the dome’s golden glow in the morning sunlight.

KAREN (V.O)

What a beautiful city!

“Inspiration on Display”-the motto on the sign in front of the New Jersey State Museum in downtown Trenton-may also be the underlying theme of Grant Castner’s collection of landmark photographs, on exhibit through September 15th.

Amateur photography took off and camera clubs were established after 1880. Contemporary novice photographers have continued to document the city of Trenton and its surrounding communities.

Unlike many downtown employees who often ignore the colorful spectacle of the city’s changing seasons unfolding in front of their eyes, in her snapshots, contemporary photographer Patt regularly captures the majesty of the Delaware River. The War Memorial, and historic buildings from the bygone era of the Roebling family dynasty.

In a recent Zoom seminar, “Discovering Grant Castner: the Lost Archive of a New Jersey Photographer”, State Historical Society archivist, prolific author, and photographer, Gary Saretzky guided his audience-novice and expert alike-through a comprehensive profile of his subject, interwoven with insider information on the intricate process of taking pictures in an era when photographers still depended on natural light.

Born December 6th (my birthday!) in 1863, Grant Castner, like most of the amateur photographers of his time, simply took pictures of his surroundings just as they were, without artistic interpretation: a canal boat on the East State Street bridge (now covered over at Route 1), horse drawn streetcars in the 1890s, a flooded Trenton railroad station, the (now defunct) Water Power Canal in Trenton, mules pulling a canal boat along the Delaware Canal towpath in 1894, and the view of Morrisville, Pennsylvania from a bridge. Castner was a leader in the groundbreaking use of gelatin dry plate glass negatives.

Like Patt, who often uses her lunch break as an impromptu photo session of contemporary Trenton, Castner also planned his photo shoots around his work schedule as manager of the Union News Company and as secretary of The Camera Club of Trenton.

In 1907, Castner got married, leaving his sister’s Trenton home for a house of his own on Tyler Street. More than a century later, Patt moved to Trenton from her native Burlington City to be closer to her job, camera in tow even as she later moved again to central New Jersey.

Erudite, with a wide spectrum of interests, neither photographer limited their work to a single category or genre.

Patt’s choice of photographic subjects is often serendipitous.

“(When choosing a subject, I think) this (looks) cool”, she says. “This (is) interesting to me. Is it interesting to you?”

Patt, and Castner before her, like renowned photographers James Van Der Zee and Gordon Parks, also took iconic pictures of local people in their own familiar surroundings. Castner photographed African Americans in their homes and at work, and in 1915 photographed elementary school students in both all-Black and integrated classrooms.

Patt’s journey as an amateur photographer began in childhood.

“I’ve always wanted to document things”, she explained in our phone interview as she navigated rush hour traffic.

“My grandfather gave me a camera when I was little…I got into sharing my photos when my brother was a pitcher for Pop Warner. During the pandemic I walked around taking pictures…of the elderly (sic) and (people) with limited mobility and sent the pictures to them.” Her photograph, “Detritus”,  was taken outside the New Jersey State Library on the State House Annex side. Among Patt’s recent photographs is my favorite of the Confluence fountain in the State Library plaza, with the names of New Jersey cities, villages, and towns carved around its base. At lunchtime during my organization’s annual staff development day, I sat on the carving of the name of my own hometown as the sun warmed the granite underneath me.

Patt had a similar experience: “Sometimes I sit on (the Burlington carving) on my lunch hour. I give the “colonial weather report” about the stats of the Delaware River in December to re-enactor friends and take pictures of the water and the bridges for my friend (during) the changing seasons.”

If you’d like to dabble in photography yourself, you have a huge advantage over Grant Castner and other photographers of his day: like Patt, you have a smart phone in your pocket that enables you to create your own digital photo collection! Take a few snapshots on your break or on your way home, to share with friends, or even to submit to photo contests, libraries, and other institutions to put on display.

Maybe I’ll be writing an article about your photo exhibit some time in the future! Good luck!

(Note: For more information about the late Grant Castner and his work and related information about photography, go to Gary Saretzky .