Tyler Haughey (LA)

"Famous for beaches and boardwalks thronged with summer renters and day-trippers, the Jersey shore is an unlikely place in which to depict landscapes that are still, quiet, unpopulated. Winter is coming, and the fake palms are wrapped in plastic."

If you have a love for midcentury design, then you might want to consider a road trip along the southern New Jersey coastline in America where some of the most significant examples of motels from that time still exist, many of which remain unchanged.

Situated in The Wildwoods, a group of small shore towns on a five-mile-long barrier island, the postwar resorts have been captured by photographer Tyler Haughey in his series, Ebb Tide.

The Wildwoods is the collective name for a cluster of small shore towns spread across a five-mile-long barrier island in southern New Jersey. The area first developed into a major summer tourism destination in the 1950s when brothers Lou and Will Morey, inspired by a visit to Miami’s South Beach, started building motels on the island. The Jersey Shore destination got another big bump in 1957 with the completion of the Garden State Parkway, which channeled an estimated 350,000 additional cars to the region every year. By 1970, more than 300 new motels had been built in The Wildwoods, many of them owned by the Moreys.

The saturated hues in Garden State–born Tyler Haughey’s photographs of off-season Jersey Shore motels infuse these desolate venues with warmth and humor. The pictures look as though they could be frames from a Wes Anderson film: Haughey finds visual magic in a prosaic locale, capturing the beauty of the shore’s Art Deco structures in both the sun and snow. One stunning example, Gold Crest Resort Motel (2016), shows a vivid lodging façade with cherry-red doors, turquoise drapes, blindingly white railings, and a vivid green putt-putt yard demarcated by a yellow curb. Gallerist Gaines Peyton described the “box-like effect” of Haughey’s images: From her perspective,they become an “extension of the architecture,” as the pictures evoke both painterly geometric abstraction and Joseph Cornell’s famous boxes.

The title, taken from a poem by former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky about the area of New Jersey where both he and Haughey grew up, speaks to the vernacular interest and deep connection to place that the subject matter holds. The son of a union sign painter, Haughey’s interest in roadside architecture and signage began at an early age, and as a native of the Jersey Shore, he is greatly influenced by the seasonal economy and off-season vacancy of a tourist destination.

Photographer Tyler Haughey grew up less than a mile from the beach just outside of Asbury Park, in New Jersey. On weekends, he used to spend time at his grandparents’ beach house in Barnegat Light where started a true fascination for coastal towns and regions.

Earlier this year, New York-based photographer released his new photobook entitled Everything is Regional, a print project described as a monograph that examines the built environment of northeastern coastal towns and explores how we use, interact with, and remember places designed and known for summer recreation.

"As we declared last year, just as our open calls aren’t “photo contests,” this is not a “Best Photobooks" list. It’s not a competition, and with just a few editors running the Humble show, feels disingenuous and unrealistic to declare it as such. Instead, this is simply a collection of photobooks that made an impact on us in 2018.

"As editors and curators with a broad spectrum of tastes, we responded to critical socio-political discussions, adventurous technical or conceptual potential, new takes on photo historical icons, or just damn beautiful image collections. As you move through this list, we encourage you to dig deeper into these photographers’ work and show your support for their careers and practice by buying a few, preferably directly from the publishers or photographers themselves."

"The photos in Tyler Haughey’s series Ebb Tide capture the classic motels of the New Jersey shore in their 1950s candy-colored glory. His crisp formalism melds perfectly with the “modern” style of the structures and captures their spare winter dormancy. The series also includes close ups of old postcards depicting tourists enjoying the pleasures of the shore. The contrast between these two sets of images conjures thoughts of the slow demise of such quaint seaside retreats. A monograph of this work, Everything Is Regional, was published by Aint-Bad this Summer."

"Hailing from New Jersey, Tyler Haughey has already received much critical acclaim for his explorative works, including being published in Slate, PDN, Lonely Planet and Wired, and represented by Sears-Peyton Gallery in New York and Los Angeles."

"I don’t know much about New Jersey. I’ve driven around, past, and through it. Like most, my understanding of the state is clouded by pop culture and over generalization. The Boss, the mob, Trenton makes the world takes, Jersey Shore. I know as a state it’s green and often treated like the ugly sibling of New York. It’s probably safe to say that the state of New Jersey has a vulnerable identity often misinterpreted by outsiders. In “Everything is Regional” by Tyler Haughey we explore motels, coastal enclaves, and parts of New Jersey that have not been frequented in mass for a long time. We see the decadence of American tourism and the subsequent abandonment of a once fantasized locale for more idyllic destinations."