Van Cortlandt Park inspires local's new photography book on loss and memory

Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated Ira Merritt's wife is Sara Merritt. Sara Merritt is his daughter. His wife is Laura Minsky. 

At the age of 75, lifetime Van Cortlandt Village resident Ira Merritt is releasing his first-ever photography book, a series of 165 images that span themes of grief, nature and healing.

“Ephemeral Light Moving Through Time, Loss and Renewal in Van Cortlandt Park” draws heavily on the memory of Merritt’s son Benjamin Merritt, who died three years ago from unknown health complications.

Merritt described his son as an incredible, though complex, person. He was sociable, an avid reader and a watch collector, but struggled in school due to an attention deficit disorder, and had a tendency to tell stories that weren’t true. The cover of Merritt’s book is a photo taken in the early 1990s titled “Lost Boy,” which shows Benjamin walking after sledding on Van Cortlandt Park’s hills.

“I didn’t know if he felt comfortable with himself,” Merritt said. “He had a lot of questions.”

The book is separated into five sections : “Weight of Absence,” “Fragile Traces,” “Unspoken Connections,” “Breaking Light” and “What Remains,”  with Merritt’s poetry interspersed.

Merritt said ephemeral light means that things quickly disappear — like his son — but in actuality, “remain with us for years.” That concept can be seen throughout his work.

“When every step, every artifact, every fleeting imprint and relationship tells us life is fragile, we accept it as an immutable truth,” one of the book’s untitled poems reads. “Yet those fragile traces, even as they fade, have an essence of themselves where they touched the world.”

Merritt, born and raised in the Amalgamated Housing Cooperative, grew up playing basketball and punch ball in Van Cortlandt Park. He recalled spending the whole day outside, only briefly returning home for something to eat, and then right back to the park until dusk.

In his 20s, after studying political science at The City College of New York and a brief stint at New England School of Law in Boston, he started working as a media specialist in Lehman College’s Educational Program in 1975. Merritt said he always had a creative instinct, but didn’t fully invest himself in photography until two years later, when he and his wife, Laura Minsky, quit their jobs and travelled through Europe and the Middle East for a year.

“I slept with my cameras,” he said of that year.

Once they returned home to the Bronx, Merritt taught at Grace Dodge Career and Technical Education High School, and after spent 26 years at Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design. While he taught, he worked on his own photography projects through grants from the Bronx Council on the Arts.

Later in life, Van Cortlandt Park took on a new meaning. His parents’ health started to decline in 2010, and Merritt adopted a caretaker role. The park became an escape from the stress of his family situation, and he would take his camera to capture freshly fallen snow, plants, park goers, deceased and living birds, and Riverdale landmarks such as the Van Cortlandt House and remnants of the Putnam Railroad.

Merritt’s mom and dad died four years later, but he said the series needed an ending, and he kept shooting until 2016. He drew inspiration from “The Solitude of Ravens,” a book by Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase that contains images of crows, often blurred to evoke feelings of loss and loneliness.

In the fourth section of Merritt’s book, Breaking Light, photos are marked by a soft haze, “blurring the line of what begins and what ends,” Merritt said. Writings continue this exploration of the healing process after losing loved ones.

“Grief can blind us,” another poem reads. “It feels like a night that never ends. It’s navigating a strange new landscape with no map. Yet in unexpected places and unexpected ways, light insists on entering. Windows open. Curtains fray. A neighbor knocks on the door and it opens. Flowers bloom, and birds sing again.”

Merritt currently has a photo exhibition on display in Gallery 505 at 505 W. 236th St., running through May 3. “Ephemeral Light Moving Through Time, Loss and Renewal in Van Cortlandt Park” will be released next month.