The more natural beauty photographer Ann Darlington discovers, the more she wants to share what she sees with others.
That search for splendor has taken her around the United States and the world — from the Adirondack and Great Smoky mountains to Yosemite National Park, to Turkey, Italy, Greece, and Iceland.
Some of her most sublime photos, however, were taken in the Abbott Marshlands between Trenton and Bordentown, adjacent to the Delaware River, and not too far from Darlington’s home, also in Bordentown.
In addition, she has photographed various aspects of the former Point Breeze property, the home from 1816-1839 of Joseph Bonaparte, the exiled King of Spain and oldest brother of Napoleon.
“While I love travel and photographing nature and landscape all over, I gravitated to the natural beauty of Point Breeze and the Abbott Marshlands,” Darlington says. “Both locations are nearby and provided me mini respites from the day to day.”
In late 2020 the former Point Breeze property was acquired from Divine Word Missionaries (the Catholic order that had owned the site for decades) through a partnership agreement between the City of Bordentown and the D&R Greenway Land Trust with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
The action secured the permanent preservation of the City of Bordentown’s last unprotected large open landscape, which is also an important place of state and even national history. Positive things are in store for the land, planned to be part of New Jersey’s state park system, with interpretative signs, audio tours, and walking trails.
The Gardener’s House, the only building from Bonaparte’s time at Point Breeze that still exists on the property, is being restored and will open as a museum. In addition, a historic garden has been designed, with crops that will be grown modeled after what was in place in the early 1800s.
This writer visited the park recently with a friend and can report that wildflowers are in bloom, several species of trees are in bud, and an array of songbirds have returned for the spring, and are already staking out territory.
What a perfect time, then, to exhibit Darlington’s images, in a show hosted by the Friends for the Abbott Marshland, at the Tulpehaking Nature Center in Hamilton. Darlington’s first solo exhibit is on view through Friday, May 5.
After chairing 2022’s Voices for the Marsh 10th annual juried photography exhibition, Darlington was invited to put her solo show together by Pat Coleman, naturalist and president of the FFAM.
“There’s a whole series of black-and-white images of the flowering trees at Point Breeze, where I used different lighting and angles etc., and the other half of the photos are of the Abbott Marsh, 30 images in all,” Darlington says.
Darlington recently retired from the State of New Jersey, where she worked as a childcare licensing inspector since 2003. She first took up photography about 15 years ago and was especially drawn to Point Breeze, finding herself walking the paths of the former king’s estate, camera in hand.
“Moving to Bordentown in 2003, I loved learning about the historical significance of the town,” she says. “While there are many stories, I especially loved hearing about and photographing King Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze. Until recently it was Divine Word and private property, and I gravitated there because it was a step back in time.”
“The trees and pathways were so beautiful, and at the time it had been so well maintained,” she says. “There was an orchard with these big, flowering trees, which one of the priests took care of, according to the groundskeeper I spoke with. And of course, as soon as it snowed, I was there.”
The photographer has captured the property’s old growth trees in all seasons. The black-and-white images in particular have a certain mystical quality.
The pictures from the Abbott Marsh also take the viewer to a contemplative place, as we see a swan cutting through tranquil waters dotted with water lilies and reflecting early spring foliage. Another photo shows bare trees silhouetted against a rising full moon.
There’s a ghostly sunrise on the creek, the ancient woods dusted with snow, tall meadow grass in late summer — all of which reveal Darlington’s love for these lands and their diversity, as well as her keen eye and talent for catching the moment.
The Abbott Marshlands are a critical natural and cultural resource located in central New Jersey along the Delaware River between Trenton and Bordentown. Its 3,000 acres of open space include the northernmost freshwater tidal marsh on the Delaware River and surrounding lowland and upland forests.
The marsh is named for the federally designated Abbott Farm National Historical Landmark, recognizing its importance as one of the most significant archeological sites on the east coast.
In the late 19th century, Charles Conrad Abbott, a writer, naturalist, and amateur archeologist, drew the attention of the world to the marshlands through collection of Middle Woodlands artifacts found on his walks there, and his writings speculating on the “antiquity of man” in the new world.
Abbott’s affection for and curiosity about the marshlands resonates with Darlington, who says she is so tuned into nature, “I go through a bit of withdrawal if I can’t hear the rustle of leaves or water flowing.”
Darlington is a native of the Boston suburbs. Her father was the building superintendent for Boston University’s Law School, and her mother worked for Putnam Investments. She says she’s had a love for the woods and nature as long as she can remember and recalls the family’s rural summer place on a lake in New Hampshire, with no frills, just lots of woods to run around in.
She graduated from Boston University with a BS degree in education. Upon moving to New Jersey with her husband, the couple and their two children lived in rural Millstone Township prior to her 2003 move to Bordentown.
Settling in Bordentown has suited Darlington very well. Her son and daughter and five grandchildren are flourishing in southern New Jersey: son Simon runs Darlington Design, a residential/landscape design and building firm. Her daughter Katherine Mott is a clinician/therapist within a group practice.
Darlington took up photography once her children were out on their own, and she jumped into it. “I got the photography bug bad,” she says.
It was 2008 when she purchased her first digital camera, choosing the technology over film and dark room work since digital made photography easy and affordable to experiment with, she says.
She got involved with the Cranbury Digital Camera Club, the South Jersey Camera Club, as well as the Princeton Camera Club, where she garnered some enlightening critiques and encouragement. Between attending lectures and clubs and just going out and taking pictures, Darlington soon found she had a decent body of work and began to exhibit.
As far as influences, Darlington names Ansel Adams, but says, “I was also inspired by talented local photographers from my camera clubs.”
The D&R Greenway, Friends of the Abbott Marsh, Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Farnsworth Gallery, and Pinelands Preservation Alliance in Southampton have all shown Darlington’s work. In fact, she will have a piece in a juried show at the PPA, which opens on March 27.
The venerable Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Atlantic and Ocean counties has also been a prime photography location for Darlington, as well another venue for her work.
In addition, Darlington has granted permission to several organizations, including the Forsythe Refuge and the PPA, to use her landscape images to promote their projects.
The common thread within all of these associations is highlighting the awareness of our physical surroundings and celebrating these natural gifts, which fits precisely with Darlington’s artistic aesthetic.
She is especially moved by the words of John O’Donohue, the late Irish poet, philosopher, scholar, and native Gaelic speaker, and his reflections on the human experience of nature. In his book “Beauty: The Invisible Embrace,” O’Donohue wrote:
“When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace. Beauty is mysterious, a slow presence who waits for the ready, expectant heart.”
“These are the words that inspired my solo show about the (splendor) of the Abbott Marshlands and Point Breeze, the idea of capturing this beauty and conveying it,” Darlington says. “It’s just a stone’s throw away from where we live, so I want other people to see it, too, and to have that take-your-breath-away experience.”
Photographs by Ann Darlington, Tulpehaking Nature Center, 157 Westcott Ave, Hamilton. On view through Friday, May 5, Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. 609-888-3218 or abbottmarshlands.org.
All images in the exhibit are for sale, matted and framed as shown, or as 11” by 16.5” prints on high quality archival paper. A portion of all sales benefits the Friends for the Abbott Marshlands.
More about Ann Darlington: annedarlington.myportfolio.com.
