Meet Long Branch 'Everyday Heroes' in the city's new COVID photography exhibit

LONG BRANCH - They're everyday city people. Baker. Nurse. Child in a park.

They're everyday city leaders. Coach. Mayor. Councilman. Superintendent. 

They all have one thing in common. They helped the city in the fight against COVID-19.  

Together, they make up a new art exhibit titled "Everyday Heroes," by photographer Andrea Phox on display at the Long Branch Arts & Cultural Center on Broadway.   

"They were willing to put themselves out in front on posters for everyone to see in what had become a politicized issue. They stood up," Phox said. 

In the darkest hours of the pandemic, when vaccines were still months away but coming, the city used COVID grant money to create a public service health campaign using its "everyday heroes" to urge people to get the shots.   

Sidney Johnson, the city's recently retired public health director, said the posters got the message across. 

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"We were very successful. Our vaccination rate in the city is 90% for people over 18. And now we just got the vaccine for children and are offering that," Johnson said.   

Johnson hired Phox to take the photos, which he said was a "marriage made in heaven," for the task.  

"She really took hold of it and captured terrific moments with the subjects," he said. 

Phox is no stranger to photographing the city's diverse faces on camera. Five years ago, for the city's public library's 100th anniversary, she created a photography exhibit called "Shine: 100 Women of Long Branch." The assemblage put the spotlight on women from all walks of life in this city of over 30,000 people. 

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Most of the heroes exhibit photos were taken prevaccine, when Phox said they were isolated and "no one was interacting." The posters were then used on the city's social media or placed around town with quotes from the subjects. 

She began with the city's high school football and wrestling coach Dan George, a person "everyone" knows. She canvassed the city, capturing a beautiful silhouette of a child running through a water fountain. Soon, people began lining up. 

"The photographic lens throughout history has produced results," Phox said. 

All the posters are now in one place on the walls of the city's new Arts & Culture Center at 577 Broadway. The heroes exhibit, which was named by the center's event coordinator Christine Sullivan, will run through Dec. 3.  

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.