SOCIAL STUDIES An Artist Looks at Social Events

Story and portrait by Dan Epstein

Millburn resident Bart Gorin is exhibiting a series of photographs made at social events over a couple of decades which document the changes in how we gather to celebrate.

Gorin didn’t start out to be an event photographer. Growing up in Brooklyn and interested in Art, he attended the Pratt Institute where he majored in Sculpture and Art Education. Graduating in 1976, an interest in photography led him to a career as an advertising photographer in NYC in which he was responsible for creating the photographs used to illustrate many national ads seen in popular magazines.

It was in 2001 when a co-worker of his wife asked him to photograph her wedding that he dipped his toe into the world of event photography. One thing led to another, and quickly his schedule was full documenting all kinds of social events: weddings, bar mitzvahs, and corporate parties. After over 20 years of covering social events of all kinds, Gorin, stuck by the continuous cultural shifts in traditions, rituals, and even mores, has gathered a selection of photographs that document these changes in an exhibition at Studio Montclair.

In Drag Queen 2004, the musical entertainment photographed at a corporate holiday party transcends the traditional disk jockey or combo of musicians. A drag queen miming along to popular songs entrances the partiers. Gorin points out that while the wedding tradition of throwing both the bouquet and garter belt is rarely seen at contemporary weddings these days, here in Garter Belt 2022, he sees it reappear, and the placing of the garter reveals a party guest with multiple tattoos.

In Wedding Selfie 2022, as phone cameras get better and better, selfies, which didn’t exist prior to cell phones becoming common, happen even in the middle of a wedding ceremony as the celebrant stops the wedding service to grab one with the couple he’s about to pronounce husband and wife. In this exhibit, Gorin has shown us that while we will probably always gather to celebrate, the more things stay the same: the more they are different.

See more of Gorin’s intriguing work in an exhibit at Studio Montclair opening April 21 running through May 26, or on his website.

Bart Gorin