Last June, I worked on a photo story about the Lakewood Court Motel. The piece, subsequently, appeared on the Rear Curtain photojournalism website, and generated some nice discussion.

The demise of the Lake-Wood Court Motel occurred just after I shot those photo last summer.

I thought that was it for the old motel. Time, and not enough income, took its toll.

However, it appears the old gal will rise again, but this time as a brand spanking new gal.

in the past few weeks, it seems the project has gone into overdrive – the frame is up and crews are always on the premises. I’m sure the warmer winter had a positive impact on getting this project done.

I’m assuming, if they keep the name, they’ll provide a new sign at some point. Right now, though, that old sign is the thinnest of threads to the old place. It’s almost comical that the sign is still standing.

Whatever this new joint is called, it’s good something is going up. Times are tough for the little New Jersey communities, and if they can get a source of new revenue, that’s a good thing for their economy.

and who knows, maybe they’ll invite me to the ribbon cutting!

© Mark V. Krajnak 2012 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved

You may remember a few weeks ago when I wrote that I entered the Global Health Council’s photo contest called Women and Girls in a Changing World. There were some really strong entries but, unfortunately, I found out that none of my submissions won. Chessa Latifi, with some really strong work, won.

I was disappointed in not winning but, at the same time, glad I threw my hat in the ring for such a worthwhile contest. As I continue to doing the type of photography that I love, I’m coming to realize that I do see my photography as a way to tell stories – of people I meet, places I see, and just the things I take in. . While I used to tell these stories as a print journalist (and – for a very short-lived stand – as a short-story fiction writer) 15 years ago, I’m now seeing that photography is the outlet for my storytelling.

Reportage. Documentary. Photo Essay. Whatever you want to call it

So, whatever disappointment I had with not making the cut in the contest was more than washed away when I found out that Rear Curtain, a new and upcoming photo essay periodical publication with a strong online component, was going to publish my photo story on the Lake-Wood Court Motel.

Titled Further On Up The Road, this essay looks a dying, disappearing piece of the New Jersey landscape, the one-level motor lodge. Click on over at the link above to view the essay. Photos and words are mine.

I had driven past the Lake-Wood Court Motel dozens of times. Months ago, I got the spark of idea that it would make a good photo story. Once the project began, I visited the motel to shoot five times, total. Usually in the morning when, despite the sounds of nearby Route 130 right there, I’d get a little lost in the past walking around the old place.

Needless to say, I was very surprised when I then drove past one day and saw a bulldozer taking bites out of it. I would have kicked myself if I had procrastinated any further and never shot these images. Taught me a good lesson: If you have an idea, work it. Shoot it. You don’t know when it may no longer be there.

Getting back to Rear Curtain, I’m very honored to have this photo essay featured on the site. I was first approached by editor-in-chief, Ray Ketcham, one of the co-founders of RC, a few months ago about possibly contributing some of my stories. Immediately, this was attractive to me for a number of reasons.

First, I could hear the excitement that Ray (and my other friend -and RC managing editor-, Sabrina Henry) had for this project. These two, along with assistant editor, Matthew Connors, have already invested in a good number of hours into this new venture. This isn’t their day jobs folks…this is their passion.

And the more I thought about it, the more I was excited by it all as well. Sure there are a number of great places to try to get a photo essay published – peek over at that listing I have called Photo Resources – but good luck if your name isn’t McNally, Milnor, or Fitzmaurice. Here, though was a group of motivated individuals willing to give up their free time to explore the photo essay and publish a site to explicitly for this type of exposure.

As I told Ray, for some reason, this new venture reminds me of the late ’60s, when writers wanted to get their work out and they just self-published. And the movement now among photographers to publish photo books through Blurb and other places.

Yes, my photo essays could sit here or on my Flickr page or on my hard drive. But Rear Curtain is such a great option to reach more people and contribute on the ground level to an exciting venture.

Here’s the photo essay, as a multimedia slideshow:

As for this essay…like I said, I’m glad I got it in. Wish I could have gotten into one of the rooms – that would have added to it. I decided to process the images into a custom sepia tone using Nik Silver as I thought they seemed to go with the story.

Be sure to check out Rear Curtain – it’ll be great to see this site grow with fantastic photo essays. You can also follow Rear Curtain on Twitter. As for me, I have a couple of notebook pages worth of essay ideas I hope to shoot – I hope they flourish on Rear Curtain.

© Mark V. Krajnak 2011 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, images captured with a Canon 50D, SanDisk digital film, finished with PS4 or PSE6 and Nik Software.