Gallery Shows
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800 Gallery, Monmouth University, Long Branch, NJ, 2005, Reception - Solo Show
Behind The Colored Lights
"an insider's view of the carnival"
Click here to see more images in this series.
Click here to see the video shown.
Click here to read the press specific to this event.
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"an insider's view of the carnival"
Behind the Colored Lights: An Insider’s View of the Carnival
October 28–November 23
by Eileen Reinhard
Artist and photographer Melanie Heinrich is a child of the carnival, and as she claims, it is a world still in her blood. Heinrich’s family has been in the business for decades, and she herself spent many summers working at her own carnival food stand. As a result, Heinrich’s imagery tilts, whirls, reveals, and evokes nostalgia for hot summer nights filled with the sights and sounds of the midway.
Behind the Colored Lights shows carnival life through Heinrich’s still photography and a video documentary. The photographic essay features rich images of the everyday workings of the carnival and emotive portraits of “carneys”—the people behind the scenes.
Heinrich’s short documentary takes viewers on a journey as the artist visits with her sister, Debbie, at the carnival she co-owns with her husband, Corky Powers, who is the sixth generation of a carney family. Powers Great American Amusement Midway Company runs an amusement park on wheels featuring more than 50 modern rides, games, and food stands employing 300 full and part-time workers.
The documentary traces how the carnival business has changed from its Depression-era beginnings as a form of inexpensive entertainment to today’s traveling equivalent of “Disney on wheels.”
“It is the charismatic quality of the lifestyle that is captured in my images,” Heinrich said. “The images show the movement and colors of the mixed lights that adorn the rides, food stands, and games. The portraits allow the viewer that insider look, and behind-the-scenes peeks, at this most interesting lifestyle and its people.”
Melanie Heinrich earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in photographic illustration at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1984. Now a specialist professor, she heads the photo area in the Art and Design department at Monmouth University in New Jersey. She is working towards her master’s of fine arts in photography at Goddard College.
Heinrich has been shooting for over 30 years and owns and operates a commercial photography studio in Little Silver, New Jersey. Her clients are both regional and international. Heinrich’s work can be seen at www.mhstudios.com.
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