Back in March, the Highland Falls Library proudly opened an exhibit by photographer Stan Goldblatt called ‘The Appalachian Trail — Fort Montgomery Project: Portraits of Thru Hikers on the Appalachian Trail’
It’s been extremely popular, Library Director Leslie Rose said this week, and thus she has asked Goldblatt — and he agreed — to keep it up through January. It was supposed to come down in early October.
“We’ve had a wonderful response to it,” Rose said of the 20 photos and descriptive captions hanging on the walls of the library’s Community Room. “People who don’t regularly come in have stopped in to look at it. It’s definitely attracted visitors to our community.”
She said it also has been the backdrop for other events at the library, such as a visit last June by the Highland Falls Intermediate School’s fourth grade.
“I read to them from “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk’ and the kids were completely captivated by the story, as well as our photos on the wall and map of the Appalachian Trail.”
Rose said once Goldblatt takes down the exhibit, it will be rehung at LL Bean’s headquarters, where he is doing a presentation on the project in March.
Goldblatt is a resident of Fort Montgomery for over 45 years. He took on the photography project after running into Appalachian Trail thru hikers at the Fort Montgomery Post Office. A former backpacker, he was attracted to their journey, and seeing them made Stan realize that studio portraits of the hikers would be a great photography project.
He ended up photographing 166 hikers — the youngest hiker was eight and the oldest was 66. Each portrait uses the same neutral studio background allowing the personality of each hiker to be the main subject. Hanging below each portrait is the hiker’s trail name, age, and a brief quote. Every hiker was asked the same three questions after their photos were taken: ‘What motivated you to make the journey; what has been the biggest surprise; and what’s been the best and worst experiences along the way?’
He says the responses were varied.
“The reasons for going varied and overlapped. Bragging rights, adventure, escape, love of nature and a chance to think and work out life’s issues were some of the reasons,” Goldblatt explained back in March. “What caught me off guard was how much fun it was to meet these people and hear their stories, even for the brief time we were together. The variety of people that decided to hike more than 2200 miles was surprising. I met two families, the youngest girl turned eight while hiking the trail. The oldest hiker I met was 66; he was a former astronaut, and there were several military vets who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. There were more than a few recent college graduates and retirees. One hiker made custom bows, one worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, one was a clinical psychologist, one was a chef and there was a small group that was doing missionary work along the way.”
The library and the exhibit are open to the public Monday 10-5; Tuesday 10-7; Wednesday 10-6; Thursday 10-5; Friday 10-5; Saturday 10-2.
