The Jones Beach Project

After working with volunteers and paid models for The Body as Archive series, I began to feel a certain kind of karmic weight from asking fellow human beings to expose themselves – even if carefully, to ultraviolet light in the name of art. At that point I began to think about finding people who had exposed their bodies to ultraviolet light, simply by laying out in the summer sun. The result was The Jones Beach Project. This page contains just a few of the 80 or so portraits made this way.

The photographs were made during week-long visits in the summers of 1997 – 1999. We set up our studio each day, on the broad, white sands of Jones Beach State Park, a 6.5 mile ocean-front beach visited on average by six million visitors every summer. The portrait sessions took place in a 144 square foot studio adapted from a huge ‘family style’ camping tent. I used a Hasselblad 500 camera and color negative film.

The huge tensile studio we set up every day created a public spectacle. From the first day, people were incredibly curious and helpful. One New York State trooper spread the word up and down Jones Beach. With the project spanning three years, Jones Beach habitues felt some ownership with what became a public art project.