Exhibition: A Photographic Journey Through Union County History

Nancy J. Ori, of Berkeley Heights, well-known local photographer and educator, received a 2021 HEART Grant (History, Education and Arts, Reaching Thousands) from the Union County Board of County Commissioners to do photography at approximately 40 local historical sites and create an exhibit.

She has spent months researching and photographing the numerous exteriors and interiors.  Her artistic selection of subject matter was determined by the best summary of images to depict the life style of the people who lived throughout the county during the different time periods in our history from the Revolutionary War to the present.  Ori refers to these images as “portraits” of the architecture and artifacts.

The body of work provides a balance of images between the architecture, furniture, costumes and artifacts of by-gone eras to reflect those who lived, worked and played in Union County at earlier times.  Some images are romantic in style and provide a contrast to the playful depictions of antique dolls and toys, some are bold forms of tools and objects presented almost as sculptures, and some are planned or contain artistically composed room setups to provide more formal images. 

Popular locations such as Liberty Hall in Union, the Trailside Nature Museum in Mountainside and the Drake House Museum in Plainfield, as well as the smaller historical sites of the Eaton Store Museum in Hillside and the Carter House in Summit are only a few of the locations featured in Ori’s photographs.

Nancy Ori is recognized internationally as an industrial photographer and video producer for New Jersey Media Center in Berkeley Heights.  She also enjoys teaching photography classes and workshops each year throughout the United States and Europe.  She is on the faculty of the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts in Summit, Peters Valley Craft Education Center in Layton, the Somerset Art Association in Bedminster and the Watchung Adult School in Watchung.  In 1990, she established the New Jersey Heritage Photography Workshops, which she holds each spring in Cape May.  And in 1995, she co-founded the New Jersey Photography Forum, a group of professional and very serious amateur photographers who get together regularly to critique each other’s work and exhibit together locally.

The exhibition runs through Saturday, March 11, 2023.