Photographer Tom Zuk applies the skills he’s honed over decades of street and studio photography to a group of people he feels deserve more attention, the people who really make Hoboken tick. 

His latest series, “Work/Seven Portraits,” which opens Sunday, March 17, with a reception from 2 – 5 pm, honors the work of people whose jobs are often classified by economists as “service” or “labor”: a nanny, a crossing guard, a waiter, a dog walker, a package deliverer.  

“As a photographer, for me to apply the same high level of attention –– technical, artistic –– to the people who posed for this series as I would apply to photo shoots with CEOs is my way of giving the former their due,” Zuk says.

These people deliver our goods; control traffic; clean our streets; walk our dogs; care for our children; bring food to our restaurant table. Many of them are subject to the elements. They work hard. “Without them,” he adds, “there would be no modern, prosperous Hoboken.”

The seven people who posed for portraits represent hundreds of other workers whose lives aren’t the stuff of glossy magazines. “By removing the seven people from their work environments, where they too easily meld into the background of the city, and photographing them in a studio setting, the viewer, for a moment, is compelled to give them his or her undivided attention,” he says.

The exhibit will be on view through April 21. To learn more about Tom Zuk, find him on Instagram, or read about his previous exhibit at the Museum, “Rear Window.”

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.