A city in silence: Photographer documents Newark amid pandemic lockdown

Before he ever owned a camera, Donell Woodson always felt like he saw the world through a lens.

The Virginia native didn’t go to school for photography, but after moving to Newark in 2012 for an IT job, he couldn’t help himself — he bought a Nikon digital camera, took a six-week course at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan, and started shooting pictures and videos and posting them online.

Woodson, now 30 and living with his wife in Newark’s Ironbound section, hasn’t quit his day job in IT. But he freelances for Getty Images, much of it fashion and street style in New York, and does promotional work for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the Newark Downtown District. Check out his work at dwoodsonphotography.com and on his Facebook page.

With more free time to shoot and history in the making, Woodson began taking a series of stills and video clips captured largely with his drone camera documenting Brick City on lockdown, as Newark businesses closed and its streets emptied under orders from Mayor Ras Baraka and Gov. Phil Murphy intended to curb the spread of COVID-19.

This month, a friend sent Woodson a link to a post on NJ.com about an initiative by the Newark Public Library inviting submissions of captioned photos for archive of local images during the time of the coronavirus.

Woodson put together a submission, and forwarded the same works to NJ.com, which include a video, “Be Still Newark," a title inspired by Baraka’s “Be Still Mondays” program, and a half-dozen stills, all in the black-and-white format that Woodson prefers for his personal work. Woodson’s friend, Christopher Beltran of Plainfield, contributed some of the stills in the video.

“That’s really what my inspiration was, too," Woodson said in an interview. "Just to be a part of history and kind of remember it when I look back and say, ‘Oh, I was around for the 2020 pandemic.’”

“I really just tried to capture a lot of the places where I spend a lot of time when I’m in Newark," Woodson added. "I go in Penn Station, I go on these streets, I drive to work. So, there are all places I’m familiar with and I see a lot of people, but I just don’t’ see them (now) because of the impact the pandemic has had on Newark.”

Below are the stills Woodson submitted, followed by a description of each in the photographer’s own words.

“The time that I’ve spent here, since 2012, I’ve always seen Broad and Market [streets] as the heart of Newark, or the heart of downtown," Woodson said. "And a lot of people catch buses here, a lot of people do shopping here, a lot of people go to local businesses, restaurants which are right there. So that’s pretty much the lifeline of Newark is, and for it to be so empty at this time of day, when people. really should be out there, is something that I felt should be documented and should be captured.”

“I kind of wanted to give people a frame of reference on where I was shooting the video as well as taking pictures. I always want some type of landmark that tells users, if they’re not familiar with the surroundings, where we are," Woodson said.

About capturing the flag flying atop Prudential Plaza, Woodson added: “It wasn’t on purpose. Sometimes, a lot of the things in photography, you kind of just stumble upon or it just comes on its own, and just having things like that in the background actually enhance the photos."

“This one, I drove down Market Street one time and I couldn’t stop at that point, and so I had to drive around again, and I just looked to the right and I was like, ‘Man, that is an awesome photo,’ because like a said, I see stuff through a camera lens," Woodson said. “And I said, ‘I need to get that picture. That is an awesome picture.’ So, I actually had to go around the block, and circle back around and I found somewhere to park and I just kind of ran up, as I didn’t want to disturb anybody or anything like that, and I wanted to kind of catch this person in their, you know, how they were.”

“It reminded me that there are people that normally shop there. They are there all the time. These gates are not down, they’re up.”

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“This person here is just sitting in front of an empty building where it normally should be up and bustling with people.”

“Right there, I think it’s a light post, it just cast that nice shadow right there in front of the person. It gives it that nice little pop for the image. But I just love stuff like that. Things that kind of cross into the frame, as well as the shadows that are already there.”

“I drove by there, and I saw this guy," Woodson said. "He was taking his lunch break, I guess, or just taking a break before the route. So I just parked my car and I ran over and I was like, ‘Sir, do you mind if I get a picture of you?’ Because I saw that he had this cool mask, protecting himself.”

“A lot of these shots that I got were with no people. But I wanted to also highlight essential workers, as well. You know, people who risk their lives every day, going out there just transporting people from Point A to Point B, and the precautions that they take. And I saw him with his mask, and I asked him if he could put it on and just give me a look. And, as you can see, that’s what he did.”

“I actually used to go to this barber shop. That’s really the main reason behind it. This is right on Halsey Street, where they have a lot of clothing stores and barber shops, there’s Hobby’s Deli, which is a pretty popular deli in Newark. So I just took a picture of it.” “As you can see, it’s closed.” It’s a sunny day.

“I spend a lot of time on Halsey Street for lunch," Woodson said. "So there’s, like, delis and stuff and businesses. There are cars parked because there are residential buildings right there.”

Normally, he added, “This street is pretty packed, as well, because it’s a one-way street, and there’s a light up there. So if you catch it at the wrong time, you know you’re in traffic for a while.”

“Why black and white?” Woodson responded to a question in a follow-up email. “I believe that when you remove the distraction of color it helps viewers focus on other aspects of the photo, whether it be the atmosphere, the contrast, the overall energy and emotion it invokes, the shadows! A lot of history was captured in black and white so I wanted to continue that trend and be able to take a person back to a time gone by.”

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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips