COLLEEN GUTWEIN O’NEAL
Resident Artist at Index Art Center, Community Partner-At-Large at Shine Portrait Studio | Working in Newark since 2006
Utilizing vintage Jem Jr. box cameras manufactured in Newark in the 1940s, photographer Colleen Gutwein O’Neal captures artists’ personalities in fuzzy, mysterious images that emerge against a backdrop of vanishing architecture, forgotten places and artists’ workspaces threatened with demolition or redevelopment.
“Each artist I work with for The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project, about 100 now, talks to me about their practice, their work, and their connection to both the community and the city. The stories span decades and generations, and include, displacement, destruction, rebirth and growth. I am attempting to capture this cross-section of what came before and what will come a er through the community I am involved with as a working artist. The city and the visual artists working here are the inspiration for the last 5 years of my work.”