Paradise Lost


  • Photographer
    Douglas Ljungkvist
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    2009-2013

A long-term project about a 1940's New Jersey beach resort started in 2009 and continued through the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which severely damaged Ocean Beach

Story

This photography project was a study, started in 2009, of a unique place in the American landscape that appeals to my vernacular taste and sense of style and order. It has now become a story about a place after being partly destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The cottages at Ocean Beach (NJ) were built in the late 40's as an affordable beach vacation option or ownership for working class families and returning GI's from WWII. Some might say the cottages are nothing more than oversized trailers. The interiors have hardly any decorations creating an abstract time stamp and few clues as to who the owners are. The bedrooms are utilitarian in nature and minimal in size to where they straddle the line between intimate and claustrophobic.

In October 2012 Ocean Beach was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. This new, and unexpected, phase of the project juxtaposes the harsh state of the cottages vs. the softness of the sand, sky, and part of what lead to its demise, the ocean, with surreal undertones.

Though there were no fatalities here there were lots of victims. Both the owners and those who have come to rent the cottages for generations. Many did not have flood insurance and FEMA does not cover secondary homes. Those people have lost everything. This was considered a safe real estate investment and owners have come to rely on the rental income year after year. Getting a mortgage to buy a cottage will not be easy either forcing many owners to have to sell for all cash at steep discounts.

It also reminds us of the frail relationship we have with mother nature and the risks of building on a thin barrier island. The project will be published by Kehrer in the fall of 2013.

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