ABOUT

Jeff Mermelstein began photographing Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1981 on a quest for taffy-rich colors and seedy atmospheres. Mermelstein was mesmerized by the sights: a pink lady at a baby parade; a startled bag lady dressed in red; a cat-show judge named Mr. Friend. Trips to Asbury Park and beyond soon grew to encompass a much broader spectrum of American life from commercial sets, trade shows, and wedding parties, to dog shows, mall grand openings, cocktail parties, and nearly anything jarring, disjointed, or surreal in daily life he encountered in-between.

Magazine assignments led Mermelstein to explore, among other far-out subject matter, the curious sights of animal acting, including legendary four-pawed performers Morris the Cat, Lassie, Benji, the Merrill Lynch bull, the Exxon tiger, and Zippy, a performing chimp. “I can still feel the excitement of hugging Zippy,” Mermelstein recalls, “and watching and photographing him in his bus and as he entertained at a bar mitzvah on Long Island.”

Inspired by these encounters with the odd and unusual, Mermelstein continues to this day to snap up scenes of vivid color, glitz, plastic, and artifice. No Title Here showcases his treasures from over twenty years of canvassing the land in search of the quirky, the absurd, the oddly lyrical, and the sympathetically funny sights it has to offer.