Linda Troeller

2nd Street, Lakewood, New Jersey My photography addresses boundaries, how we arrange  ourselves and our space,  what is material and immaterial and how groups migrate, improvise and divest. I have been observing the changes in this shore town's population since I grew up in the  region in the 1960's.

This project documents the Latino and Orthodox Jewish population influences that have been reviving the downtown that had lost it's popularity when the vacation hotels by the lake went out of business and  people preferred going to the malls. Many have come to start a new life and are looking for a place to belong, for community and how to survive. Some have no green card, others no work, some have been in prison; and others are thriving -- yet they want to show up in "town" for daily supplies, religious service melding together in a new microcosm of the ever-changing immigrant's belief in the American dream.

In my portraits I observe  a fragment into the  drama, pathos and mapping that is influencing these dwellers future.