The Roosevelt Project:
Photographs by Fran Orlando
May 22 - July 3, 2024
The exhibition featured 59 portraits from Orlando’s expansive project photographing the residents of the small New Jersey town in the late 1970s. Roosevelt, New Jersey, began in the 1930s as Jersey Homesteads, a planned community to help Jewish garment workers escape poverty and the city. Although the social experiment failed when the factory closed a few years later, the town soon became a rural mecca for artists such as Ben Shahn, Bernarda Bryson Shahn, Gregorio Prestopino, and Jacob Landau.
Orlando intended to create a portrait of the town by photographing the people who lived there, several of whom were original residents. She photographed for two years, in black and white with 35mm and medium format cameras. During that time, she received recognition and support for the project from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, exhibited at the New Jersey State Museum, and had a solo exhibition of the work in progress at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie. The project was put on hold when she left New Jersey to attend graduate school in Philadelphia.
During the intervening years, Orlando established a photography business in Philadelphia, worked in various museums as an educator and exhibition planner, and served as Director of Exhibitions and Artmobile at Bucks County Community College for 35 years. She currently works as assistant editor at The Photo Review, a critical photography journal of international scope and readership.
Orlando notes, “Much has changed in the 45+ years since I started this project. Neither the town nor photography are the same. The elders that I photographed are gone; the children are grown. My original gelatin silver prints are considered ‘vintage.’ Moreover, the project has taken on a historical significance that I never considered when I began.
“After all these years, I didn’t feel like I could return to the darkroom and begin literally where I had left off. My life has been spent teaching and learning and I couldn’t deny the changes in myself either. I needed to leave my original gelatin silver prints in the past to bring my work to the present, so I scanned the original negatives and printed the work digitally with my current sensibilities.”
The Roosevelt Project: Photographs by Fran Orlando was presented in conjunction with (re)FOCUS, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia Focuses on Women in the Visual Arts/1974, a citywide festival recognizing women artists. With over 150 exhibitions, panels, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations, it was one of the first large-scale surveys of the work of contemporary American women artists, signaling the inception of the American Feminist Art Movement. (re)FOCUS 2024 is also a Philadelphia citywide festival showing how women-identified and BIPOC artists have moved from the periphery to the center of the art world. Like its 1974 predecessor, (re)FOCUS is a collaboration among Philadelphia's large, small, and diverse visual arts institutions.
This exhibition was funded in part by the Bucks County Community College Committee on Cultural Affairs and the Bucks County Community College Foundation.
image: Jonathan Shahn with bust of Peri Prestopino, 1980/2023, archival pigment print
Installation views:
All photographs are archival pigment prints from original negatives.
Laura and Nadine
c. 1979/2023
Ingrid Jordan
c. 1979/2024
Ralph and Nancy Warnick
1980/2023
Morris and Augusta Chasan Ron Orlando
1980/2023 1980/2024
Bill and Sissy Porter Paul Prestopino in his shop
1980/2023 1978/2024
Faith Sherak (top)
1980/2023
Irving Rose and daughter
1980/2024
Abigail Rose at piano (top)
1980/2024
Rod and Mary Tulloss with David
c. 1979/2023
Alan and Berry
c. 1979/2023
Mindy Hepner Reverend John S. Grauel
1980/2023 1979/2023
Mr. and Mrs. Kleinman
1979/2024
David Geber
c. 1979/2024
Boys at Store
c. 1979/2024
Building the Playground
1980/2023
Girls at Store
c. 1979/2024
Building the Playground(Kate Murphy)
1980/2023
Jonathan Shahn with bust of Peri Prestopino
c. 1979-2023
Yona and Izzy Weissman
1979/2024
Vivian and Bob Crozier in their studio
1979-2023
Mrs. Wishnefsky
c. 1979/2023
Lottie Sackowitz
1980/2024
Leah Bookman
1979/2024
Mary Jane Berlinrut David Herrstrom
c. 1979/2024 c. 1979/2023
Jacob Landau in his studio Fran Landau
c.1979/2023 c.1979/2023
Peter Berlinrut in studio doorway Ginny Edwards
c. 1979/2024 c. 1979/2023
Nona Sherak
1980/2024
Jan Terry
1980/2024
Beryl Porter
1980/2024
Billy Klein
1980/2024
Sophie Appel Bernarda Shahn Marilyn and Peter Al Hepner
1979/2023 1979/2024 1979/2023 1980/2023
Laurie and Josette Altman (top)
1979/2024
Stefan Martin at his press
1979/2024
4th of July Picnic, 1980 Jeb Shahn and Jasper 4th of July, Roosevelt, NJ, 1978
1980/2024 1980/2024 1978/2023
4th of July, 1980 (top)
1980/2024
4th of July Parade, 1980
1980/2024
Burning Leaves (Debra Martin)
1979/2023
Jeanette and Manny Koffler
1980/2023
Myron Sheinberg and Alisa
1980/2023
Untitled (young couple with guitar)
1980/2023
Gail Oblas
1980/2024
Untitled (man with grill)
1980/2023
Liz Dauber
1979/2024
Gregorio Prestopino in his studio
1978/2023
Irv and Sarah Goldberg
c. 1979/2024
Rips brothers Sidney (Soch) and Hortense (Honey)
1978/2023 Socholitzky
1980/2023
Carol Watchler and Ann Baker
1980/2023