JPZ must have taken these portrait photos, or coached boys and girls as they took them. Was there a PYC darkroom in the church basement, or in the school?
The poses and facial expressions are strikingly well-done. JPZ has been studying his photography magazines, apparently.
Was JPZ a fan of Gone with the Wind, by any chance? Amelia Kasprzyk's Vivien Leigh tendencies are beautifully emphasized in her portrait, I'd say.
By October 1945, letters had reached the St. Luke's Rectory from parishioners overseas on VE-Day and VJ-Day. The second letter, below, is from Gene Norman in the Phillipines.
This must have been quite a common sight in 1945 and 1946. What is this building? It has fluted Corinthian columns and what looks like a screen door - an odd combination.
JPZ is likely to have taken this photo as well. My Dad, EJZ, told me that as a youth his father took up wedding photography as a second job, and on weekends Eugene was his assistant. They went together to many weddings, where EJZ hauled equipment and then posed groups of people while his Dad judged the effect through the viewfinders.
This is Eddie Nietopski, "The Durham Flash." Evidently a parishioner went off to North Carolina to play minor league ball with the Durham Bulls.
Parishioners who volunteered to run the Parish Youth Council met to plan their work for the upcoming year. The venue was the Buffalo Stuyvesant, at that time a wonderful, glamorous, thriving place.
Notice Father Tomiak's theme: "He stressed the fact that less should be done for youth in (the) way of providing everything; that more should be done to have youth help itself."
The Training Course for Sponsors was the leadership training for adult parishioners. Notice that our JPZ got his diploma for the Sponsor's course in teaching and coaching photography.
Notice all the areas in which this big Parish had instruction, guidance, and fun for youth. This was strong civil society.
Now St. Luke's church is a government-run drug-rehab clinic. As the vitality of civil society drains, government expands. The numbers of people - the proportion of the population - who cannot function without government expand. Some people like it that way.
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