REVIEW: “Truro Light: A Journey from Ocean to Bay” by Joseph Schuyler [Get Visual]

Review by David Brickman

The spirit of Joseph Schuyler, who died of cancer in January, shines brightly throughout the beautiful book Truro Light: A Journey from Ocean to Bay. Schuyler, a photographer based in Delmar, was able to plan the book (his first) but, sadly, did not live to see it published. It’s fitting that it tells the story of a journey, and that its subject is a place that held deep personal importance for Schuyler, the second-to-last town out on Cape Cod.

I knew Joe for a long time, so this will not be an objective review, but I can attest that some of my in-laws who live on the Cape, were enthralled by his poetic vision of an endlessly beautiful natural world. In a succinct, punchy introduction, Schuyler says “my goal is for you to be able to experience for yourself the sense of this remarkable place,” and he accomplishes that goal handily, but not without also imbuing our experience with the sense of how he sees and feels about his muse.

Schuyler’s vision as a photographer has always been eclectic – he was widely known for work in black and white that recorded decades of productions by Albany’s Capital Repertory Theatre, did catalog work, sold pictures to commercial stock agencies and regularly exhibited fine art prints – and that is also true in this book. We see landscapes, nature details, architecture and abstracts along the journey, and in a signature Schuyler touch, a lot of the pictures are taken in low light, rather than the blazing sun that draws so many to this ocean shore.

Click to read the rest at Get Visual.