Share Your Bridgeport Voice: Geralene Valentine & Jay Misencik

Librarian Andre Massa sits down with Gerlene Valentine & Jay Misencik, who have been taking professional photos of everyday life in Bridgeport, for decades. They currently run the Bridgeport Portrait Project, in which they take photos of people who represent the city of Bridgeport. Listen here for their stories about life, & snapping pics of life in Bridgeport over the years.

Want more info on getting photographed for the Bridgeport Portrait Project? Reach out to Gerlene & Jay at misencik.images@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome And How They Began

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Jen, your Bridgeport Story, a podcast series done by the Bridgeport Public Library in honor of America's 250th birthday. I am librarian Andre Momson. Today I'm here with two very special guests of the Bridgeport Portrait Project. We have Jenny Messens and Caroline Valentine. I've known you two for a long time, but like I'm actually excited to get you both finally as guests on a podcast. So um I guess the first thing I want to want to know is could you just tell me a little bit about, you know, a little bit about yourselves and how you first got involved with the Bridgeport Portrait Project?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I I was, you know, I'm Jay Masensic, and I was born in Bridgeport, born uh in St. Vincent's Hospital, and uh lived my first couple of years on uh Willow Street right next door to Hall School. Later on moved up uh with my family uh near 90 Acres Park.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

And I'm Geraldine and I grew up and I was born on Long Island, just across the sound. Uh very different from the Bridgeport area, and I that's probably how I found Bridgeport to be so exciting because it's actually a city as opposed to smaller towns and villages, which is my background.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

So I've got like a calendar from like 1993 in front of me, which I wasn't born by then, you know, just to let you all know. So um so I guess like you've always mentioned to me that you had many different projects before the Bridgeport Portrait project. So how did you all start, like how did you all get started with, you know, for example, you've been taking a lot, like a lot of headshots and pictures of people within the community. How did you all get started with that? And then how did you start the Bridgeport Portrait project?

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Probably like to back up just uh maybe a couple of years before we started photographing people on Bridgeport and just talk about the fact that uh Geraldine and I met while we were working in uh in Wilton. I was a photographer in a corporate communications group.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

And I've got a graphic design background.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Really? Okay, those are two things I didn't know about you two.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

I ended up working at ITT in Shelton in a graphic design group for many years. And um we came together, Jay and I came together to um start our commercial photography business in 1984.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

And two years later in 1986, we opened up our uh photo studio in in Bridgeport. We uh began working or began renovating a loft space on uh Well Street, about 5,000 square feet of space in what used to be the Rose Dress factory. So

Main Street Portraits And Local Characters

SPEAKER_00 2:46

while we were renovating the space, while we were still renovating the space in the summer of 1989, we started photographing people on Main Street in Bridgeport, just hoping to show the different occupations that existed on Bridgeport's Main Street at that time.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

So, like when you talk about like photographing different subjects and different occupations, how did you go about choosing which ones to highlight? And why was it important to be able to highlight um, you know, those occupations or those people who otherwise might have slipped under the cracks, for example, right? Like, you know, for example, I think in February of 1993, I'm seeing here that you've got Would you mind if I named the individual?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Absolutely, go right ahead.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

So I see that you've got like William Henry Evans, and it was taken. I'm seeing the address is 1001 Main Street Post Office Arcade. And it looks like in here, oh, oh, he was it looks like was this a shoe polisher? Bill, Bill was a boot black.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Bill was the only boot black at the time in Bridgeport. And again, it was one of those occupations that we found.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

And those are the things that are so cool of a think about your project, right? Because like when you think of like professional photographers, they always think of like we're gonna take a picture of like uh the most expensive villa that's in Bridgeport, or maybe somebody that's in a suit and tie. But nobody thinks to like, you know, photograph like, you know, that's the first time I'm ever hearing of that occupation.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

But we we always creep around. We we gotta dig a little, meet a little, and you know, sort of get down to the roots of who we are and why people do what they do.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

We we were still renovating the loft space we were hoping to run our photo studio out of, still trying to develop enough business to pay the rent, pay the mortgage, and uh maybe buy a pizza on Friday night. So uh but whenever we whenever business was slow, we would do exactly what Jarlene said. We would go out and creep around Main Street at the time. And we photographed the butcher, the barber, the bootblock that you just mentioned, the police officer, the museum curator, bank president, a psychic advisor, and a new psychic wait, a psychic advisor?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Okay, what is that? I have to know.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Whether you call it fortune telling, a medium, whatever, but just getting guided spirits coming through and giving information.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

And there I didn't know there was one in Birchport. There are several.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

There are many more today than there used to be, actually, but uh one also one of the people we uh found in an apartment on Main Street was a a newspaper boy that was just about ready to celebrate his 81st birthday. His name was Miller Ross.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Miller was my buddy. Oh wow. No, he was so cute. He was in his late 80s. Um he used to he used to um call me on the phone and ask me to come and take him to lunch, and he told me that after we had photographed him, obviously, that he wanted to wear a tuxedo for the opening. We had an opening at the Holiday Inn when Trev's had owned it. And um we had dedicated the exhibit to Miller since he had passed. He actually passed as soon as his photograph was being printed on press that morning. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

So like how how over how responsive has the community been to like a lot of the work that you do, whether it's with the Bridgeport Portrait project or any other projects that you've done? Have they been like overwhelmingly excited to get their headshots taken? Or has it sort of been maybe a little bit muted sometimes?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

I would say it was a mixed, a mixed response. Uh you know, going back to our first portrait series on on Main Street, uh everybody we approached was very excited about being part of the part of the project. We we we at the time we asked the city for a letter of recommendation to help us introduce ourselves to people in the project, and uh that sort of fell through. So at the at the time, the you know, City Hall wasn't in back of us. Other local businesses thought we were a little bit uh foolish or the word crazy came up or you know, why we were doing it. It it took about 15, 20 years before people started to appreciate the the photos that you know 15 or 20 years later were definitely part of history. Many of the people had already passed away and the stories, you know, we save some of the stories. You know, one one of the cue stories I think is uh about the barber we we photographed on Main Street, Vincent. Vincent was Vincent was still operating the barber shop that he grew up above in an apartment above the shop that his father was running at the time. And his father wouldn't have become a barber if he didn't say no to P. T. Barnum. P. T. Barnum wanted Vincent's father to play bugle in a band for the circus. So Vincent's father said, I'm I'm gonna cut hair and you know, grew a family upstairs from the barber shop, and Vincent took it over when his father passed. So the little stories like that always intrigued us and just happened, you know, we think really make the community what it what it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Yeah, I think there's also something to be said too that if it I mean, I don't want to be presumptuous, right? But I think there is something to be said that if it probably wasn't for the two of you doing this, right, a lot of those stories wouldn't be able to get told or people wouldn't find out about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Um it's it's a it's a big part of the reason that we we're still working on uh projects similar to our first Main Street project. We're working on what we call the Bridgeport Portrait Project, and we really don't know how to stop. It's uh we just keep on coming across people that have really neat stories to tell. And uh as will happen with all of us, time passes and the people pass along with it. We've we've saved a lot of stories that you know should should be told.

Film Darkroom And Bill Evans

SPEAKER_02 8:35

And a lot of your photos are professionally edited. Does it take a long time to do that?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

You tend to spend more time after taking the photo than taking the photo itself. You know, s setting up a photo takes time, meeting people takes time, knocking on doors and and talking with people. But uh part of what we've done and early on our photos were all with film.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

And uh I don't know if you remember film, but uh I I think I think like vaguely it's something that took a lot longer to produce that photographic print than it does today with digital photos. But uh you know, now that you mentioned that, I've gotta know. Okay, my favorite thing growing up is do you remember those cameras that you when you take a picture, they make the picture right away?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

It would shoot out the bottom?

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Or yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

We do remember that.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Did you all use those at all ever?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

We we never the camera you're referring to was called Polaroid's SX70 camera, and it would you know spit out the photo and you'd wait for it to develop, but we use Polaroid film a great deal in proofing our commercial work. We've done some artsy types of photos with uh Polaroid film that the Polaroid would call Polaroid transfers or emulsion transfers, where we take the Polaroid image and put it onto a different art paper.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

We actually put it into hot water and then I lift it on the page. So it's like transparent?

SPEAKER_02 10:00

No way.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Yes, it is so cool. And everyone is different. Do you want to all unique?

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Do you have the infrared rooms too?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah, we never really played around with infrared rooms that much.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

Well, no, I guess maybe I misphrased it right. But like the dark room? Yeah, that's what I meant.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Do we have a dark room? We we don't have a dark room anymore because we don't use film anymore, but our our commercial studio had a dark room that we use a lot.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

I've just always been so fascinated by those things because like I recently uh where was I actually I took a cruise actually in October and I was with my mom and I think it was like one of the oh, it was the Intrepid vessel actually in New York that we visited, and they had a dark room in there too. And like they they they had like the little like uh the plaques that told you about the whole process, right? So like when you get the film, you have to like let it sit, I think, in the water for like was it a day or two or even a couple hours, and then like after that, you have to be so per like do you have to be so precise in the way that you process the film after or before it gets ruined, and then like have you ever ru and then have you ever ruined a film and had to retake the picture?

SPEAKER_00 11:06

We've never, you know, our our dark room was only for black and white film, black and white printing.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

We we I can only remember one time where we had an outside lab uh ruin a role of color film processing for us, but uh our black and white, you know, early early on in our photo studio, our commercial business, our our black and white work took up pretty much half of uh half of our business. So we were in the dark room a lot early on. And I what I wanted to mention early early on was uh getting back to our Main Street portraits were all black and white photographs.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

I'm actually so like all these photos in the calendar I'm seeing were black and white too. So you all would have done that in the dark room, like right.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

That's right. Yeah. At the time when we were starting the the Main Street series of portraits, we contacted Agfa Film, which was a German film manufacturer, and we liked their black and white film. We we called their offices in New Jersey and were requesting, we were re requesting their contribution of some black and white film if we gave them credit in our publications or whatever. And they asked us to come down with to New Jersey to show some photographs, and we brought a photo of Bill Evans, the the boot black. And uh they they loved the photo so much that they gave us a lot of film and made some prints to show and some print prints of Bill to show in a trade show at the Jacob Javitz Center.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

And we ended up driving Bill Evans down to New York City, this was in 1991, for the Ag for Show. And when we walked in with Bill, they were waiting for him and they had the newspapers and and the TV cameras there. And and Jay and I had to take a backseat because it was all about Bill Evans, and it was absolutely amazing. He was signing photographs, they gave him all kinds of presents, and then on the way home, Bill said to us, I have to tell you two kids, this is the absolute best day of my life. I've got like what what happened to him that day?

SPEAKER_02 13:03

I've got like so many questions I want to ask now.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So just just a boot again. Bill at the time was just a bootblack from Bridgeport. And uh he was he was shown around the Jacob Javit Center like he was the king of you know, pick your place.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

So you all must have like traveled a lot, right?

How Bridgeport Changed Since 1991

SPEAKER_02 13:20

At like because like your project doesn't just center on Bridgeport, though, but it could does it cent does it do you travel like to a whole bunch of different places?

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Most of our work in the past several years, 10, 20, even 30 years, is traveling around the different neighborhoods of Bridgeport.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Do you have a particularly favorite one that you like to go to or one that you've like come back to a lot?

SPEAKER_00 13:41

A certain place in Bridgeport?

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Oh, I don't, I don't think so. No, I'm always excited and looking forward to the next. What's behind that door or inside that building.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

So it's almost like like which is kind of just like interesting, then that like your whole project gets focused in Bridgeport because the highlights one, Bridgeport is so diverse and so huge that you can always find something every day, too. But then two, it just shows you that like every day it seems like you're finding a new story, like correct me if I'm wrong, but every day it seems like you're finding a new story that just needs to be told through your photography work.

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Oh, that's it, that's exact, that's exactly right. And uh, you know, uh we we started the Main Street series in 1991, and uh here we are in 2026. You know, Bridgeport has changed incredibly in those in those years. You know, it we've seen generational changes from the Italian barbershop that we knocked on the door of to uh Bill Evans, the the boot black. And today there's today there's probably ten times the number of barbershops in Bridgeport, but they're they're not Italian men cutting hair.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

It's all different ones.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

The ethnicity of Bridgeport has changed.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

You know, and those are the things that like I feel like in real time, the Bridgeport Portrait Project is like capturing.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

That's exactly what we tried to do. And that's true that change.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

At the time we were photographing people, they would some people would ask us, why are you doing this? We tried to explain the history is happening now. Let's capture it. And people were not getting it. But I do want to mention with that that first uh black and white Main Street calendar that we had done, it was probably about thirty or more years later. People were talking about it and remembering it and asking if we still had any because and they would pay a prime price for it because now they finally realize there's beautiful history there.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Well, and these photographs too, they can't be replicated anywhere. Like, especially like too, like I I do a lot of work with AI, right? AI would not be able to create the authentic authenticity that's behind those images, too. Um and like in all of these photos, I feel like you all are preserving it's like almost like you're preserving the history of Bridgeport that wouldn't get told otherwise, right? Like when I read history in a textbook, you know, they'll tell me that like this event happened here, and they'll be like, and that event caused this to happen, and this is how we ended up where we are now, but there's no really sort of backstory behind that, right? Like I'm reading text and I can visualize it in my mind, but when I look at this calendar, I'm getting a real snapshot into what Bridgeport was like back in 1993, and I have to crack this joke before I was born.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Once more.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

You knew you were gonna get some in here. We were we were creeping around the city and you weren't even around yet.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Honestly, though, but I guess like even in the midst of their joke, though, even in the midst of that joke, though, there is something important though. For somebody like me that wouldn't have been alive when Bridgeport was like that, this is the only way that I can get a snapshot into the history of what the city was like back then. It's probably even more it's probably even doubly important for me too, because I come from Danbury. So I I I've commuted to Bridgeport for the past three years, but I have no idea how different the city could have been in 1993 or 1991.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

A big reason why we started the Main Street series of portraits was to show off what we thought was Bridgeport's strongest asset. And it's simply the people that that live here. And uh another reason we started was to show off the people of Bridgeport to people outside of the city. The people that are here know each other and appreciate each other and help each other out.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

These are things that like I'm a librarian in Bridgeport. These are things that I have just not known at all. And now this is actually like literally the first time I'm actually getting to see what the city was like back then. Um since we're here actually in East Side, I've gotta ask, how much has Eastside changed, I think, since you started?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Tremendously. Actually, I remember when we first started uh the portrait uh the uh Main Street project, I would say I don't understand. What are these Jersey barriers doing up on the east side and the east end? And I just didn't get it. But with all of the drug dealings and everything, it's just like physically vi and visually the whole East Side had changed.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

The headlines in the newspaper, you know, when we started the main street portraits almost every day for months was about the Jersey barriers being put up, you know, should they should they be put up? They were put up and what they were doing to help the east side as far as the you know the drug problem. But uh I can remember just down the you know, a couple blocks down the street from where we are here at the library going shopping at Skydell's. I I sort of grew up with a lot of family in the on the east side and used to walk to Skydell's uh department store on on East Main Street. You know, Skydell's is long gone now, so that's changed. There's a grocery store there now. It's things are just different, but uh that happens everywhere. It's it's a natural, a natural thing. And I I would you said something uh a couple minutes ago. I I thought back to having grown up in the city and you you talked about the 1990s. I I I can remember hearing stories that my mother, who grew up and lived in Bridgeport all her life, told me about her growing up in Bridgeport and what Bridgeport was like in the you know during World War II, after the war, early early fifties, the the vibrancy, the activity and stuff going on downtown, tremendously tremendously different than today. Uh incredibly active and vibrant. It's it's Bridgeport's not much different than other industrial cities that had their day in the 40s, 50s, and yeah, the term rust is used a lot, and it's just parts of Bridgeport that are that are still rusty, but Bridgeport I think is uh making a little bit of a comeback.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

I I could definitely tell, especially with like a lot of the uh like a lot of the renovation that's happening along the waterfront. Yes. A lot of the renovation that's happening, like or a lot of the work that's happening, I think, with the amphitheater. Um and actually, like if you even look at East Side too, I mean, we've got the library here now. I I've heard tons of story of what this place used to be. It used to be like uh a buffet, it used to be a place called Fitzwillie's, you know. Yeah. Oh, really? You see, now I would have I would have never I would have never been able to taste those hamburgers.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

But I think I had a hamburger uh right where we were sitting now.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Oh, really? Are you serious? Oh, I was in Fitzwillie several times.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

That's that's where we're used to this literally used to be a place that you had a hamburger. This podcast several hamburgers. Oh my god. And these are the things that I wouldn't know about. I've been work I've been working here as a librarian for the last three years, and now I'm gonna look at these studios totally different now because I'm gonna imagine you two having hamburgers in there back in the day. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

I mean, I guess it's always change the change is inevitable for uh any any place. You just have to, I think, remember where you came from, you know, you look forward to where you're going.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So you both have kind of touched on it a lot, I think, through why you stay in Bridgeport. But what makes Bridgeport, I think, so unique and so good to take a lot of the photos that you're looking for compared to, say, like, if you ventured out to nearby areas like a Stratford or a Shelton or even like Fairfield, right? Like, what is so unique about Bridgeport as a place where you can constantly get new content and new stories to tell?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

I I I think Bridgeport being in the state's largest city, uh Bridgeport just has more, more to offer us as far as uh stories to to look for, visuals that we uh appreciate. Yeah, you you mentioned Stratford, we uh our work has been over time appreciated greatly in Stratford. I would you know we've we've worked with the Stratford Historical Society, the Stratford Museum, the senior center in Stratford, and whenever we give a presentation, the the crowds are are large and the the act you know, the conversation in the in the presentation is always taken over you know by the by the group that's there. We could we could usually sit back and not say much and just listen to the crowd.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

That's have you have you done work with the Bridgeport History Center before?

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Uh we've actually when we had our commercial business going, we used to copy we used to copy. A lot of the large large circus posters for requests that came from around the country and mail the film out to Arizona, Texas. I don't remember a couple of times of California.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

All right. I've got to know. When do I get my head shot? Would I be one of the subjects that would be good for a uh for like a anything for the Bridgeport Portrait Project? I mean, you could be honest with me.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I think almost anyone that wants to sit still for a camera is is a good subject as long as you, you know, the the better the subject, the better the story, hopefully.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

And okay. I I see what you did there. You let me down gently. I know that like as I was talking to you before we started doing this recording, that there were a lot of images that you wanted to highlight. Are there any particular ones that you want to like any particular maybe new projects that you've got going on that you want to highlight that you want to mention?

Inside Palace And Majestic Theaters

SPEAKER_00 22:50

You know, I I I guess what we'd like to tell you about is how we how we got from our first photo project, which was the people on Main Street, to through the Bridgeport Portrait Project. While we were photographing people on Main Street, we met we met Barbara Jean Zineski, also on Main Street. She ran the Joy Center Ministries out of the building complex that houses the Palace and Majestic Theaters.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

This Joy Center, she offered daycare services for some of the mothers for homeless people that had children and needed a place to stay during the day. Um she offered them spiritual guidance, and she also allowed some people to stay overnight because she just had a true feeling of helping needy people.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

At the time, the the theaters had a leaky roof. There was a lot of water on the floor, had very little electrical surface. But Barbara gave us a tour of the theaters, and we sort of got hooked on uh the visuals behind the facade. The people would drive by and see the facade, but have no clue to what a pair of 1922 vintage theaters looked like on the inside. And we just we we were just compelled to photograph what was inside to the nicest quality that we could do, just to preserve the look of the theaters. That that was in 19, that was in 1991 also that we first first took a photo inside the theaters. And we had to that at the time there was a restaurant called the Ocean Sea Grill, a longtime restaurant in downtown Bridgeport, right across the street from the theaters. And because of the lack of electrical service inside the theaters, we asked we asked Amol and Bob Rowleary, the owners of the Ocean Sea Grill, if we could plug an extension cord into their restaurants without blowing a fuse.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Did you blow did you blow a fuse? No.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

We didn't blow any fuses, but the first photo we took in inside the theaters, thanks, thanks to Amol and Bob, was from the electricity inside their restaurant. But we had to take the we had to take the photo in quarters. We had to take we had to four times expose a sheet of film so we wouldn't have all our lights on at the same time and probably blow a fuse in in the restaurant. But it uh it worked out and uh you know, we kept on going back to the theaters for for several years. Yeah, but part of our part of our theater project after after photographing the interior architecture of the theaters for several years, we actually got a little bit a little bit bored with just the just the architecture itself. We gave presentations around the area at different libraries, senior centers, uh historically, museums, historical societies. And we were we were looking, we were with that present those presentations, we were a little bit selfish because we were looking for people that had a past connection to the theaters.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Well, when we would go around giving these presentations, people they knew we were coming. Yep so they would show up with stories or photographs from when they were a child. Uh we had like a tap dancer on stage from the 1930s, and this this time he was in his 90s when he shared his story. Really? And um, he's the one that had stories about a wrestling bear in the middle of the um there's an alleyway outside between the two theaters, and they would um house the bear out there, and then the bear would come in during an intermission.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

The bear would wrestle with a uh a fellow in the in the theaters that was sort of there set up and tear his clothes off and stuff. Really? But they would they would do that prior to movies that were being played in the theater, just to try to fill the seats. You know, the wrestling bear.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

We don't do this anymore.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

I was just gonna say the wrestling bear wouldn't be there anymore. But we we met we met former candy girls, ushers, usherettes.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

And uh 15-year-old at the time, she won the best second prize for the best games contest. Do you know what gams are?

SPEAKER_02 26:46

No.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

It's a term referring to women's legs back in the 40s, 50s. But uh Louise came in second in the best games contest, and she came she came with us a couple years back to several presentations we gave, and Louise always lifted her skirt and showed uh how good her games were still, even though she had a couple of knee replacements. But uh I I mean one of their one of their cute cute stories is at the at a presentation at the Stratford Historical Society, we met we met Lou Bogash Jr. And Lou at the time was in his when it was in his 90s, and uh he he actually play boxed his dad on the stage of the Palace Theater at the opening of uh the movie The Champ. And again, all these things were done to fill the seats in the theaters you know, prior to a movie uh being played. But we ended up we ended up photographing many of the people that had a connection to the theaters uh recording their story. And in 2017, we published a book with the photos and words words from the people we interviewed.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

And that's entitled Polize Palace and Majestic Theaters Memories Projects. We have a little bit of history and a lot of stories about the people who were on stage or had other connections.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

But our our our projects again always always grew out of each other, always overlapped each other. We were we were working on our main our Main Street portrait series when we met Barbara and we started photographing the the theaters. But that project ended up in a in a book, as Jerlaine just mentioned. And

Merton House Portraits And Dignity

SPEAKER_00 28:32

uh getting back to the Main Street series, well uh we published a calendar with the Main Street series portraits, and in nineteen at the end of nineteen ninety-three, Marianne Furlong, who was the director of the Merton House of Hospitality at the time, saw our Main Street portraits and asked us if we could do something similar to help the Merton House. You know, in in a fundraising manner or whatever. We ended up doing a series of portraits of the Merton House on on Lower Madison Avenue at the time.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

It was uh at the time it was a soup kitchen and a day shelter. So and it came the people that would attend there on a weekly basis would be chronically ill, mentally ill, the elderly, whatever. And they never turned anybody away. Um it was a safe place for people coming off of the streets.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

So we ended up putting a a series of portraits of the guests of the Merton House together for a a 1994 calendar that was the 20th anniversary for the Merton House, and the calendar was such a success that they called us back again to do their 25th anniversary in 1999 again for a calendar that was successful. And we we joked at the time when we were wrapping up the 1999 series for their 25th anniversary, and we told them to call us for their 50th anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

And they did. It was so great. We loved it.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

So I guess like I have to ask, like, how so how you you said just you presented your exhibits at a lot of different historical societies, at a lot of libraries. Are those the are those the only way that people can see like a lot of the work that you've done?

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Or is a lot of your work now available on like maybe a website or um there's there's work on our website, not you know, each of our projects is re represented on our website, but right now there's a uh that the Merton House 50th anniversary series of portraits is on exhibit at the you know by the Hussatonic Museum of Art in downtown Bridgeport. And also at the Husatonic Museum of Art in their performing arts center is our polized palace and majestic theaters memories project photos. There's you know several photos in each of those, each of those exhibits. So they could be right today where you can see you can see them there.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

There's actually been a question that's actually been nagging me. Um and it started like and and this question popped into my head when we were starting to talk about the dark room. But have you felt that your work in being able to develop because like like you said, right? It's easy enough to just take a picture of somebody, but a lot of the work that comes with the portrait project is developing it after. Have you felt that your work has gotten easier or more difficult, I think, with the digitization of like photography? You know, for example, what the process you described with the dark room sounds like it might be a lot more difficult, but with digital, like with like you know, the digitization of photography, now all of a sudden are you having to find yourself learning how to use, like, for example, Adobe software, and has that been more difficult relative to like what you used to do to develop your photos?

SPEAKER_00 31:34

You know, I I think they're just uh two two different disciplines. The the darkroom work, the dark room work takes time to develop a a look and a feel and an appreciation for. Used to spend an awful lot of time in the dark room making a a print look as good as you could. You could be there until midnight the day, you know, midnight and walk in the next morning and look at the print and uh realize you're gonna go back in the next night to to work on that same print just to get it better. It's it's the same thing today with uh Photoshop, you know, taking a digital photo, you know, opening it up in uh in Photoshop, looking at it, working on it, and then looking at it the next morning, and you see the things that you still want to work on. It's it's pretty much the same thing, just different tools. And uh I could I could I I think back and joke around a little bit about you know just spending spending a lot of hours standing up and leaning in the in the dark room and being tired of standing up all day or all night.

SPEAKER_02 32:31

Now, now you're sitting behind a you know, sitting in front of a monitor, you still get sort of tired, but it's not your legs so much as uh it's mostly probably just gonna be like yeah, or like your shoulders from having to lean into because I'm sure there's a lot of details that you have to pay attention to in the photograph too when you're making those actions.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

It's just different. Some people, some people say some people say that you you know they appreciate the look of film more so than the digital look today. It's it I think you could appreciate either one and we we still sort of think film, think the way uh you used to think in the dark room. I'd we don't do we we do some obvious Photoshop composites for our Bridgeboard Portrait project that we you couldn't couldn't do in the darkroom. Commercially we used to do an a an awful lot of multiple exposure work that now we'd now we'd continue to do in our Bridgeboard portrait project, but we used to do it in a camera where we would you know mark out pieces on you know spaces on film and take two, three, four exposures on on one piece of film. Now it's now that is easier to do in Photoshop.

unknown 33:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

But would with with our portrait work now, we we try to be very obvious when it's a Photoshop manipulated photo. Otherwise it's similar to dark home work where it's a subtle.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

If you did something like that in the description, would you have to mention that there was a lot of editing that happened in Photoshop, or would you just like not even mention that?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Well, you know, I I don't mind talking about it and saying that we do it. We're we're not we're not claiming to be photojournalists that you know have to be precisely true to what we took in front of the camera. We're we're you know, right now with our portrait project, we're trying to make people look as good as they look as good as we can make them look and have them appreciate it. And we always with all of our projects, we've always looked forward 50 years, 100 years, and have people, you know, hoping people would look back and appreciate the barber, appreciate the boot black, uh, appreciate the the immigrant from Haiti.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

I have she you know I have to make a joke now. If you take a picture of me, you're gonna have a lot of work on your hands trying to make that look good.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

That's what I was afraid of.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

So, you know, I we had a lot of talk about like how you use the dark room and all of the work it must have to take to do about that. So, like you're you've mentioned a lot about your studio. Was there a lot of office space you needed for all the work that you've been doing? And if so, like did you ever have to move constantly or have you just been in the same studio the entire time?

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Well, we we mentioned the fact that we had almost 5,000 square feet of waft studio space in the 1980s, 1990s. We we left that space in 2002, so we've been working out of our home in Monroe since then. And for our Bridgeborough Portrait Project, we we we looked for and asked for space in Bridgeport where we could do the photography. We we set up our commercial equipment like a portrait studio would be. And

McLevy Hall Grant And Uncle Ed

SPEAKER_00 35:33

we first started the portrait project in 2014, and we were we were part of a uh a state grant to the city to revitalize McCleavy Hall downtown. Oh it was called the Space Exchange. It was supposed to last a year or ran run a few months short of the year, but uh the space exchange was set up where you would uh apply for space or uh an office in McCleavy Hall in exchange for the space. Instead of paying rent, you would create a a project that was beneficial to the city. We actually actually created two two photo projects during our time there. It's it's where we started our Bridgeborough portrait project. But but prior to that, we put together a uh series of photographs by a photographer that spent 43 years working for the uh Connecticut Post, uh the newspapers at the time when he worked there. It was the Bridgeborough Post and Bridgeport Telegram. His name was Ed Brinsco and he was my uncle Ed. I I grew up next door to him while I was, you know, working at the at the post and uh I guess sort of you know sort of grew into uh what he'd did around the city for 43 years. But we put together a an audiovisual slide presentation and uh showed it on a cold Saturday in January in twenty fifteen. And you you couldn't fit inside the old uh probate courtroom in McCleavy Hall. You couldn't even get into the hallway outside the outside the outside the courtroom.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

As a matter of fact, when the program started, Jay could not fit into the room. There were about 400 people upstairs.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

A great problem to have in downtown Bridgeport on a on a weekend. But uh part of the part of the presentation of his photographs, we we had ex-mayors in the audience. Uh you you name it, the people came out and drove on that cold Saturday afternoon. And uh Mike Daly, who at the time was uh uh an editor for the Connecticut Post, I believe at the time, and uh Lenny Grimaldi, who still runs the only and Bridgeport blog, both helped out during the presentation by uh addressing the the photographs that were on the wall because they both worked at at the newspaper with my uncle and took questions and uh sort of refereed some of the opinions coming from the from the audience.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

But it was so great because people were arguing with each other for people. Well, they couldn't fit, so they were piled up in both doorways down the hallways.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

No way.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Oh, yeah. It was amazing. Everybody was so excited, it was like one giant community came together.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

The photo the the photographs that we should show were just a small section of my uncle's work at the newspaper over 43 years worth of stuff, but photographs from the 19, late 1940s, 50s, 60s.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

And we did highlight a lot of famous people that came through. Right in addition to the historical photos. I just want to mention we did we did have the video running when we were starting, just before starting the program. So I was standing on that one step, if you want to call that a stage. Some lady in an orange dress started yelling at me to get out of the way because she couldn't see the video. Well, the video the lights were still on. We hadn't begun yet. I thought it was a friend of mine making a joke, but the the woman was serious. People just they wanted to hear and see everything that was going to happen.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

I'm just astounded that there was that, like that's a lot of people. And the fact that you're telling me that you basically had a backup, like there was a line for it, that's just like Well, there was a line.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

The line the line wasn't moving because there was no more room in the in the courtroom where the presentation was being shown. It was just uh amazing.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

And that was just all like local enthusiasm, too. Yes. Just like it wasn't like these, you know, it wasn't like these big shots or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

It was just there were people that you would probably call big shots, the head of, you know, the head of different businesses in Bridgeport, head of the business council in Bridgeport. You know, ex a couple ex-mayors, yeah. But I guess you'd call them big shots.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

I guess were there a lot of ordinary people too.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Well, yes, we had a Lavidia Warren sitting in the chair. And she got up and said, if you go down the hall and see me talking in an image, she said, I was um it was 1964 or 1965, and she said, and I'm now 62 or something like that. It was just amazing. And so she told her story. So people did get up and speak when they were familiar or they were in a photograph that was on the wall that Uncle Ed took, or had a sh story to share about it.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

A lot of people saw a lot of people, you know, a few people actually came to the presentation not knowing that their photograph from 25, 30 years prior was hanging on the wall. But uh they made it fun.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

Sounds like I actually I kind of wish I was there because like I'm somebody that's always been interested in like a lot of history too. I love going to museums. I loved I'm actually one of the people that you'd hate going to a museum with because I want to read every little black.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Travel with me. I'm the same way.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Then we'd be yeah, that would be because like I because I always want to learn like what's the story behind that too. So I feel like the energy that must have been present at that time would have been perfect for me too, because like this isn't just some random old exhibit, too. This is something that is Bridgeport history, you're not gonna get anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

Right. You know, the the second project that we uh worked on, we actually started at McCleavy Hall.

Bridgeport Portrait Project As Microhistory

SPEAKER_00 41:19

It was our Bridgeport Portrait project. That was in 2020, 2015. I think 2015 was the first uh photos we took for the portrait project at uh McClevey Hall. And we're still working at it. It's an ongoing project, and we really just don't know how to how to stop it. But uh it's by far our most extensive Bridgeworth project so far.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

It's a it's a cultural heritage documentary style photography and storytelling project.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Aaron Powell It's we we say it's a little bit history and a little bit of current events. We uh we learn a lot about the history of Bridgeworth through its the through the people we photographed and uh definitely current events of the day when uh we photograph someone.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Aaron Powell We feel that like the project gives like a contemporary definition to the richness and the cultural diversity, which we really need to highlight because that's why we continue doing what we're doing. And it's exposing some people of different cultures to each other, trying to make it like one neighborhood.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

Aaron Powell Some of the people we photographed so far for the Bridgeboard Portrait Project. I I j just like to mention Bill Evans. We uh mentioned him in our Main Street series, the the boot black that was in the arcade, but uh thirty years later we photographed Bill for uh for the Bridgeboard Portrait Project. He was shining shoes in uh people's bank.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

And that was at the age of 100.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

We actually we actually uh recorded Bill's story in the North End branch library. Really? The day after his hundredth birthday.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

And his third birthday party, and he was going to a fourth one and insisted we come to that one as well. We were actually invited to his church the Sunday before, and he had us, he took us both by the hands and brought us up to the front row and sat us down. And they were honoring him in the church. It was so amazing.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

But we've we've been lucky to come across and photograph uh a World War II Polish Army veteran and an end of life end of life right to die activist. Uh we actually photographed a city librarian who was a community garden manager and a bodybuilder.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Yeah. Are you serious?

SPEAKER_00 43:28

We photographed the those we photographed the uh bluefish baseball team mascots.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

I still love the blue fish. When I used to have a science camp, they took us to bluefish games all the time.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Then you met BB?

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

I had to get on the elevator with him.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Those were my favorite memories as a kid. We we photographed BB from the the baseball team. We photographed uh Chris Lavitsky, who's the sign guy, used to walk around uh used to make make thirty by forty inch large signs and walk around the stadium and have people sign Their name on the signs, on his signs.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

And we found our names on there years later. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Or the closing of the old school on Central Avenue.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

We photographed a lot of athletes and other students. But um I recall one time we were photographing this um young man from Africa and he was telling us his story. We were we used the space uh at the stage as a recording space for him. Acoustics were amazing. Until he was talking and then he started to beat his hands on the tabletop. He kept beating, and we had to stop and we had to start and go again, and he had no idea he was doing it. But he was so into his story and so very proud having the opportunity to come and speak about Bridgeport, given his roots.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

We photographed uh the iceman, uh Jay Picarillo, who passed past recently, but uh Jay owned uh Nicholas's lemon ice, ice lemon ice on uh on Madison Avenue here in Bridgeport. He's a legend. Photographed a uh former MBA player. Wait, really? The June Juneteenth parade marshal and godmother.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

And there was also a Harding High School teacher that was the teacher of the year. We photographed her as well.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

These are a lot of different stories that you're telling.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

One very important one to us was uh a guy that became a a good friend of ours, who's the Jim Garamella was the dyslexic jazz doodler. A great story behind Jim's Jim's life. And uh we're we're still looking for people to to include in the in the project. Our first exhibit of uh photographs from the Bridgeport Portrait Project was uh at the University of Bridgeport Sheffield Gallery. We always moved around as far as asking for space to do our photography for the Bridgeport Portrait Project. And some of the locations where where we took photos of of people include the Klein Memorial Auditorium. Uh Lawrence Queso, the executive director there, let us use the stage of the of the Klein to photograph several people. We uh we met Karen and Michelle, who were the co-founders of the Black Rock Farmers Market.

SPEAKER_01 46:30

And they brought along their friend Buddy, the rooster.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Buddy was the mascot of the farmer's market.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

Did the rooster do anything cool?

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Oh, yes, he certainly did. He pooped on me while he was on stage and I was holding him. That's not cool. Well, okay, but it is a little different.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

If it wasn't cool, it was uh I mean it's a good it's a good story to tell, though. So I guess it was very funny.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

You can see Geraline jumping around on stage, but uh everybody else enjoyed it much more than Geraldine. Were you like, get that poop off, man?

SPEAKER_01 47:02

No, no, I remain calm, as usual, for those who know me. Um we've also had the opportunity to set up at the Beardsley Zoo. They have the Hansen Exploration Station, which is a building to itself. So we'll we'll bring people up there for the portrait project as well. Um, also the Barnum Museum. They were nice enough a few times to let us come in, uh, not only just to photograph people, but also to do some of the recordings so people can share their stories.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

We we photographed Adrian, who's the curator at the Barna Museum back in uh maybe 20 2019, 18, something like that. But uh we had uh we wanted to photograph her because we photographed Bob Pelton back in the early 1990s for our Main Street series. He was the curator in the the group of occupations that we photographed in the nineties. Uh we we photographed people on the on the beach at Seaside Park uh and several different spots on local sidewalks. We just set up our our equipment and asked people walking by if they'd be part of the project.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

How much of Seaside Park changed? Like over the case.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Different. You know, the the roadways are a little bit different, didn't they have different configurations, but uh it's it's kept it's kept very nice. But our uh our our first exhibit of photographs for the Bridgeport Portrait Project again was at the Sheffield Gallery.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

And that was back in uh 2020. Uh we had a great opening. It was like the premier exhibit of the portrait project. We had about 175 portraits on the walls. We on the opening day, it was in January.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Again, we filled the house on a cold opening day.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Yeah. We claimed, well, Connecticut Post claimed there was over 400 people there. Um, it became one giant cohesive neighborhood. It was so fabulous. People that were on the walls, they brought their family members and so on. How many people do you think met new people who had no idea that they were connected somehow through families and friends?

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Can I take a ballpark guess? Sixty?

SPEAKER_01 49:13

No, it's more than that. There were so many connections because going back generations, there's there is a um shoey pair on the um east side, and it's a family-owned business. And the fellow now is in his 60s, and his dad many, many years ago, passed that space, that business down to him, and he actually met his father's friend who had turned over that business to him. He met the friend's son. So now the two sons are meeting for the first time in their lives, not knowing the connection that their dads had.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

That's just like and I feel like those are things I feel like those are like impacts or things that we don't appreciate, you know, from projects like this. But they do happen. And once you find out that they do happen, I feel like just the overwhelming feeling of like, wow, I really helped make this happen must be it's probably one of the many reasons that keeps like you all doing the work that you do is helping create helping to make and find those connections that you weren't intending for that to happen. Right? Nobody knew that was gonna happen, but it did. And it happened because of what you were doing. Right. And you know, those are always like the underappreciated things that we um we we take for granted, right? We don't anticipate them.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

During the during the Sheffold exhibit, there was a fellow named Matt Collins that worked for the UB uh corporate communications group, and he described our Bridgeware Portrait project as a microhistory. And my microhistory is a a term that goes back to the being first mentioned in Italy in the 1970s, but it's it's a historical approach that focuses on small specific units such as the just the individual or a community. Microhistory is uh concern with overlooked persons, marginalized voices, looking for uh details of cultural and social history in the everyday of a community. It's it's just a a nice way to reference, I guess, what we're doing. We we we don't think about it day to day, but uh we keep on looking for a new person almost every day.

SPEAKER_02 51:18

Well, for example, right, like a typical the way that history is typically told would overlook people like the barbers from the nineties. Yeah. Or um what you're doing, though, is you are giving light to the way that those people lived back then. And now you're able to tell, you're able to help them tell a story of how their life has changed from the nineties in Bridgeport to now, right? And if it wasn't for what the work that you're doing with the Bridgeport Portrait Project and other past exhibits you've had, those stories would fall under the cracks. So I I guess if, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, right? If I had to summarize microhistory in just a very short sentence, it would be that you are I don't know if exposing would be the right word, but you're giving light or you're giving voice to history that otherwise would not exist in traditional academic settings or traditional history books.

SPEAKER_00 52:07

That's that's a very good way to explain it. We we always joked around about uh looking for the person that grows the biggest tomato in the in a small neighborhood. You know, we were lucky to we were lucky to find a fellow that uh had a great backyard garden and would would share it with his neighbors, but uh it it's the little stories that happen in a you know little neighborhood, and Bridgeport is full of little neighborhoods to to share stories.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

But you wouldn't find those in textbooks.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

No, no.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

So any other like any other projects or special exhibits that you both would like to highlight?

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Yeah uh yes, this this is a special exhibit. It's uh part of the Bridgeport Portrait Project. Um in January of 2023, we exhibited it at the Husatonic Museum of Arts, Burt Chernow Galleries, complementing the practice of democracy, a view from Connecticut that was traveling around the lower Fairfield County area. We had heard from many visitors who had been to the opening that they were going back and sitting in the museum on a quiet, solemn day where they had space to themselves, and they were actually feeling like they were sitting with their relative or their friend who was on the wall. People who had passed.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

They put black ribbons next to people that had uh recent recently passed away at the time, but were exhibited on the walls.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

We didn't realize how many, but there there was a lot, but I guess it's a matter of time. We've been working on this for so long.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

The the exhibit at Housa Tonic brought brought several people, several local people in and uh people from sort of far away from Dan Burry Raid.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

That's my hometown. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

But uh yeah, d during during the exhibit at the uh Housa Tonic Museum of art and even back to uh the exhibit a couple years before at the Shuffle we uh gave presentations in the galleries to to several different groups. We uh gave a presentation at the Shuffle Gallery to the Black Rock Arts Guild in uh at Housa Tonic. We uh had forty some odd art students from the Fairfield High School system to come in and they they listened to us as far as the the why we do what we do and they listen to to Sheena, who was the teacher of the year, part of part of the Bridgeborough Portrait Project, and and Chris, again the Bridgeborough sign guy. Uh Bridgeborough Bluefish sign guy who uh talked at the presentation to the high school students. Several, you know, several groups of husatonic community college students at the time. It w it was just a nice, nice community presentation each time we gave it.

SPEAKER_02 54:51

So you've mentioned a lot about a lot of the places that you've been to, a lot of the people that you've taken photographs in and about the need to give to need to tell those stories, right?

Why Old Places Matter And Join

SPEAKER_02 55:04

Um but one thing I've always wanted to know, like, as I've been talking to you all, is like why specifically do, you know, quite bluntly, old places matter? What is special about places that you know have a lot of history behind them and why they and why their stories still need to be told or new ways you can tell their stories?

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Well while we were working on uh the you know what we call the police palace and majestic uh theaters memories project, we we came across a a term from the preservation leadership form of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Uh the the the phrase was why do old places matter? It it sort of stuck with us during the production of our book about our project, but it it it stuck with us for a long time. And I I think it's something that uh community should should think of. But uh answers on their website and in their literature you know gave several reasons why old places matter.

SPEAKER_01 56:06

Just a few of the items that are highlighted, which I believe we will all connect with, is um the continuity. Old places create a sense of continuity that helps people feel more balanced, stable, and healthy. Memory, old places help us to remember. Many times it's just an individual identity. We can relate to it. The beauty, old places are beautiful, and beauty beauty is profoundly beneficial if we do take the time.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

And j just the history of a place gives us an understanding of the community's history that no other evidence possibly can. The architecture of old buildings are part of the history of civilization. Ancestors, you know, the old places connect us with our ancestors, giving us a sense of identity and belonging. I I I think back just to stories my mother would tell about the the the two theaters, the Palace and Majestic Theaters, talking about how she would go down there with girlfriends on a on a Thursday night, you know, trying to get through the crowds on Bridgeport's downtown Main Street sidewalks. And just the community that uh it it creates, it gives people a sense of a shared community. Just old old places matter is just uh a term that sticks with us. And uh we we we think old places matter almost as much as people matter.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

That's actually that's actually the perfect quote to end on. Um I was just gonna ask if there was one last exhibit or photo you'd like to highlight.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Yes, actually there is. Um and it would be part of our Thomas Merton Family Center 50th anniversary photos that are still up at N Beacon Hall. Um while we were photographing people, they tend to talk and share information. And I never ask as I'm working with them one-on-one. But this individual named Raymond got up at the end of his session and he said, This is the best day of my life. And I said, Why? What are you talking about? He raised up both arms and with his fists in the air and he said, I'm finally being seen. Well, we both held our breath for a bit because it was just so emotional.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

It's uh it's it's one of the nicer times during the course of uh the 50th anniversary series of porches we did for what's now called the Thomas Merton Family Center. I I guess one of our favorite photos that's hanging now in uh Beacon Hall at Housatonic is uh a photo that we call parts. We we took uh parts of photos of several individuals and put them into a photo shot composition on on the wall. It's a large, I think 40 by 60 inch print of you know showing you know two different eyes from different people, different ears, different hands, different uh a pair of sneakers and a pair of you know, different different shoes. But uh along with that photocomposition is a is a quote, one of one of the many quotes from Thomas Merton. And Jarolina read that for you right now.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Thomas Merton said that just two hours before he passed away in 1968. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 59:24

I think that really kind of encapsulates the whole theme of microhistory and showing how interconnected uh people that you otherwise wouldn't think of are connected with each other, just like those connections with the two brothers that found out that they were related to each other in some way. You don't you don't really get that, I think, without things like the Bridgeport Portrait projects and things like you have done before. So I guess before I sign off, is there anybody that you would like to give thanks to or shout-outs from?

SPEAKER_00 59:53

We'd like to we'd like to thank very much the Connecticut's Department of Economic and Community Development Office of the Arts. They've uh they've given us uh, I think three different grants through the course of uh our theater projects, our Bridgeborough Portrait projects that we're still doing. Uh WTNH's WTNH TV's Ann Iberg has been very nice to us talking about our Bridgeborough Portrait project early on and and recently having us on uh to talk about the Thomas Merton's uh 50th anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

And WPKN, the State of the Arts program, they've been on for many years. And so have we. Peggy Nelson, Richard Faniger, and now Mike Boland. Um, they have supported us with our personal projects, with the Pole Ice Palace and Majestic Theaters.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:41

And the Bridgeport Portrait Project. But uh also WICC Radio, uh Melissa in the Morning has had us on a couple different times uh in the past, you know, the recent past couple of years. And going back to when we put out that 1993 calendar, uh John. John LaBarca. John LaBarca had us on on a his Sunday morning show on WICC, helping us uh promote our calendar about people on Main Street. Also, also uh people from the Connecticut Post have been very uh supportive from the beginning. Mike Daly, editor of the editorial page, Phyllis Boros, who was an arts writer, Joe Myers, Daphne Salumi.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

And the photographers, Ned Girard, Ryan Pounds, Christian Abraham. And also Brad Durrell from the Bridgeport News. He gave us a lot of coverage over the years. And uh News 12, Connecticut, out of Norwalk. They covered the Barnum McMuseum exhibit and um their Bridgeport Portrait Project at Husatonic.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:40

We'd also like to thank Pandora. Pandora Kerma was uh intern for us uh when we were first having her exhibit at the uh Husatonic Museum of Art. We we met her, she was a student at Husatonic at the time, and she helped us many times uh photographing people for the for the Merton Center. In in closing, for us, we would just like to tell people that our Bridgeborough Portrait Project is definitely ongoing, although we started it a long time ago, 20 2014. It's it's ongoing, there's no no cost to participate.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:11

And if you'd like to get in touch with us, uh get in touch with us whether you have a referrals, comments, or anything you would like to participate, you can contact Jay or Geraline at Micensic. It's M-I-S-E-N-C-I-K.images at gmail.com. And there's no cost to anybody to participate. Um again, the project is ongoing, but we're not sure when we're going to stop. But hopefully we'll see or hear from you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

And thank you both for being here once again.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

Um, thank you. Thank you, Andre, for uh letting us be part of uh Bridgeport's America 250.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

It was a pleasure. So thank you for tuning in to this latest episode of Share Your Bridgeport Voice. Once again, I'm Librarian Andre Musa with J Mystic and Carolyn Allen Time of the Bridgeport Portrait Project. Stay tuned for our next episode. Um and thank you so much as we celebrate America 250. Thank you for joining us for our second episode of Share Your Bridgeport Voice, the podcast series done by the Bridgeport Public Library in honor of America's 250th birthday. Visit our website, www.beportlibrary.org. Check out our podcasting series at the Beer's Lee Branch Library, and tune in for future episodes of Share Your Bridgeport Voice, and to watch more episodes of Bridgeport Unmask. Once again, I am a librarian. I'm Dre Mazza, joined today by Jimmy Masensick and Geraldine Valentine of the Bridgeport Portugal Product Day two.