Gloucester After Dark
In the early years of the 21st century, my camera and I roamed through Gloucester harbor at night, taking color photographs illuminated by the lights on the ships, docks and waterfront buildings. Twenty years later I roamed our city’s streets, again with my camera, again at night, and I photographed the urban landscape. Two unique worlds, but connected. Both are just there; self-possessed, quiet, still, radiantly colored and beautiful. Both are resting from the tumult of daily labors. And in both worlds, twitching in the shafts of light and shuddering in the shadows, uncertainty about the days ahead.
Here is a selection of photographs from these two worlds.
To view at full size and in sequence, click on the first image “Entering Gloucester.”
Paul Cary Goldberg is a self taught photographer who has been making photographs, compulsively, since the 1970’s. His work is in many public and private collections including: Boston Public Library; Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Harvard Museums, Cambridge, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA. His photographs have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. His book of photographs, “Tutta la Famiglia: Portrait of a Sicilian Cafe in America,”was published in 2019 by Lecturis Publishers of Amsterdam.
Greek philosopher Heraclitus’s maxim “character is destiny” applies to this most famous and intrepid Yankee privateer Captain in America’s War for Independence, and to his …
My father’s rigging loft in the 1940s and 1950s was right at the foot of Sherman Ruth’s wharf, where the Americold freezer plant is today. He had learned his trade on Swedish sailing ships …
The Cape Ann Museum, which plays such a prominent role in the cultural heart of Cape Ann today, has a history which reaches back into the 19th century when few museums existed. …
In September, the Dry Salvages Festival celebrated T. S. Eliot's early years summering in Gloucester, and their influence on his body of poetry. Included in the program was a collection of …
My dad, Ed Niles, was born in Cambridge, Mass. His father was alcoholic and had left the family. But my father had a marvelous Uncle Jim who took him sailing out of Gloucester on his …
Ever visited the shores of Cape Ann and noticed people lugging around boatloads of air tanks (they’re not oxygen tanks), lead weight-belts, and tangles of gauges, computers, …
Charles Olson left a large footprint in Gloucester, with his stature of 6’8” far exceeded by the size of his poetic voice which arose from this city. Olson’s life, from the earliest to the …
If one walks along any of the narrow boulevards which girdle downtown Gloucester, all manner of historical markers and architectural embellishments announce the glory of the …
Since the late 19th century, it was a tradition of established, successful New York sculptors and their allied artist friends to escape from the heat of the city and head north to the …
A few years back, I lived downtown on Prospect Street. Life had come full circle. The scene that enchanted me as a teen, when I had a poster of Edward Hopper’s Sun on Prospect Street …
One day during my junior year in high school, a short kid with slicked down black hair and a flashy yellow linen sport jacket stopped me in the corridor between classes. His name was …
It is Saturday afternoon at 16 Rogers Street, where Jeff Weaver holds court from a corner in his gallery. People drift in and out of the space, a mix of old friends and passersby, with Jeff …
I met with artist Ruth Mordecai on December 13, 2022, at her home and studio on Rocky Neck. This oceanside community located in Gloucester, MA, is one of the oldest …
In the early years of the 21st century, my camera and I roamed through Gloucester harbor at night, taking color photographs illuminated by the lights on the ships, docks and …
So, this was "Wonasquam"! I was standing at the corner of Wheeler St. and Apple St. on Gloucester's Riverview Peninsula, gazing at a rock-ringed pocket park called Brown's Field. …