“JUMP”
One of the rites to passage for vacationers on Martha’s Vineyard is jumping from the American Legion Memorial Bridge into the ocean 18 feet below. For many this symbolic ritual is tantamount to announcing: “my vacation has begun.” Stephen DiRado, a Worcester based photographer, has spent the past seven summers photographing the tourists and residents who take this leap of faith. Although DiRado has been visiting Martha’s Vineyard for nearly 20 years, he drove by the bridge for almost 15 years before he stopped to photograph. He was lured by the chanting which surged to a frenzy when a jumper hesitated: “JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!”
The pictures invite us to leap with the jumper, albeit vicariously. DiRado notes, “The first pictures were exploratory, an inventory of sorts about their process: limbering up, adjusting bathing suits, veins pumped with adrenalin, followed by the leap, contact with the water and look of pleasure when they turn upwards to witness the reactions from peers. I came back to do the same the next day, and then the day after, realizing that I was onto something. I was experiencing the thrill of jumping through my camera.” For DiRado, whose fear of heights and water keeps him from jumping himself, this experience is freeing. -Stephen DiRado
