Tom Zuk – “Work/Seven Portraits”

March 17 - April 21.

Photographer Tom Zuk earned his living mainly from a mix of corporate, editorial and travel assignments –– often giving CEOs and senior executives the full celebrity photo shoot treatment. For passion projects, however, Zuk applies the skills he’s honed over decades of street and studio photography to subjects he feels are more deserving of the attention, like the people who really make Hoboken tick.

His latest series, “Work/Seven Portraits,” which opens Sunday, March 17, 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.

He explains: “It’s hardly a secret that in the space of several generations, Hoboken has been transformed from an immigrant city of blue-collar workers to its present incarnation as an upper-income bedroom community for people who, to a large extent, have advanced educations and earn their livings in the world of finance and technology.

“Hoboken’s evolution can be viewed, therefore, as a shift from labor to capital. The factories are gone. The docks are now parks and condominiums,” the 35-year Hoboken resident observes. “Overlooked in the narrative of Hoboken’s successful rebirth are the men and women who don’t commute to New York, but work in Hoboken at jobs which are considered by economists to be “service” or “labor.”

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.

Meet the photographer at a free opening reception for his Upper Gallery exhibit from 2 – 5 pm on March 17. You might even meet some of the people in the photographs. If you don’t see them at the reception, look for them around town, and stop to thank them for helping keep Hoboken running. 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.