Glass Brick Project
The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail is a mass transit railroad that runs along the New Jersey side of the Hudson River from Bayonne to North Bergen. Many of the stations on the line feature partitions made of glass brick.
On one particular sunny day, white doing some photography at Hoboken’s historic Lackawanna Terminal, I noticed how objects were distorted when viewed through the thick glass. Initially I was captivated by the colors of the objects, rendering them surreal. The things on the other side of the partition — railroad cars, fences, plastic barriers — looked like something that Salvador Dali might have imagined. Abstractions.
But then, as I was taking a photograph, a person walked through my field of view. And as one who leans into street photography, I realized that this could be a delightful way of taking candid pictures of people, train passengers to be precise. Far more interesting than stationary objects, each person walking by was different, unique. And the best part was that since I was shooting through these glass bricks, no two pictures could ever be the same.
This project began in 2022. To see more of the Glass Brick series, please visit the complete album here: https://www.stevenkushnerphotography.com/glass-bricks.
There will be more.