Four members of the Cranbury Digital Camera Club – Lynn Padwee, Rich Polk, Wayne Baruch, and Michael Padwee — will show their work at the Plainsboro Public Library from Saturday, May 6 to Saturday, June 24. There will be a “Meet the Artists” session on Saturday, May 13, from 1-3 pm.
The exhibition’s theme, “Nature vs. the Built World”, was selected by Baruch, who says one of his primary goals is to “display nature’s beauty and tenacity and present the ongoing competition between nature and our built world.” His photos of abandoned gold mills in Aruba, dating from the 19th Century are a striking example of this never-ending struggle.
A frequent subject for Polk is aging railroad structures. He notes, “As no industry is more closely related to its natural setting than railroading, it is not surprising to see the organic world embrace – if not engulf – the manmade.” His photo of a vine-covered West Virginia coaling tower, once used to supply coal to steam locomotives, proves his point.
Lynn Padwee indulges her love of nature by photographing wildlife and landscapes all over the world. This summer she plans to visit Lake Clark National Park in Alaska to photograph brown grizzly bears feeding on salmon. “I realize just how fragile our environment is,” she says, “and how we must respect, protect, and treasure it.” Rather than portraying Nature’s dominance over the “built world”, she laments the fact that “one day these beautiful habitats and their wildlife may be gone forever due to man-made destruction . . .”
“Why we build things and why we destroy them have to be taken into account,” says Mike Padwee, Lynn’s brother. His photos include abandoned small buildings that no longer exist, as well as the ruins of the “Weatherman Townhouse” in Greenwich Village and photos taken from the 70th floor of the World Trade Center in 1974. A more recent photo depicts an oil refinery in Ohio“spewing noxious pollutants.” The refinery is bordered by a cemetery and a residential community.
The Photography Club, with 60-70 members whose work is mostly digital, meets monthly at the Cranbury Public Library. There is also an online component.

The gallery is located at Plainsboro Library, 9 Van Doren Street, Plainsboro.