View the entire Coney Island gallery here
It was July 2nd, two days before the world-renowned Nathan’s Annual Hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. I had never been there and what I had read and heard about Coney Island was on a scale that had me conjure up this picture of a huge early 1960’s carnival, with bumper cars, roller coasters, games of chance with cheap prizes, food trucks, beer halls and balloon vendors. All located in the middle of a beach and right next to NYC.
Well it ended up that my imagination was a little overboard, but in my defense, I can cite several articles that had sent me down that path. First of all, it was a 50 minute subway ride from Manhattan to Coney island so it’s not exactly next to the city. When you step off the train onto the subway platform its steel girders, tile walls and the screech of the subway cars coming and going, the only clue you have that there is more to this stop is the huge Ferris wheel that lurks in the background of the station platform. It sits in between numerous multi-storied condo buildings that try to engulf its very existence. From the platform it is colorless, as it fights with the brick and concrete buildings, the brown and grey hue of the rusted train tracks, the metal girders of the old station, in its unsuccessful effort to welcome you with its red and blue neon lights.
Stepping outside the station and you are taken back as the atmosphere is carnival like and complimented with a spectrum of colors, icon buildings, amusement rides and a diverse and eclectic mass of people.
As you make your way to the boardwalk Nathan’s stands alone, with its green, red and yellow sign and the prominent 3D hotdog protruding out of it. People are queued up to get their “piece of Coney Island” via the Nathan hot dog. Just beyond the picnic tables and condiments stands of Nathan’s is the twisting and spiraling metal of the amusement rides, neon signs, and what looks like thousands of beach umbrellas intertwined in an array of patterns and colors.
It was easy to understand right there and then how this haven has had so many different adjectives applied to it and individual perspectives written about it in an effort to define what Coney Island really is. Although that definition may never be fully explained it is clear why it has been a true haven for many as they escape the heat of the city, the dreary shadows of the massive buildings, the ever present white noise and the wide spectrum of black, browns and greys that encompass their weekdays.
My “day” at Coney Island was only a few hours so my initial perspective was focused on the obvious which stretched from the boardwalk, to the beach and out to the pier to get a feel for the dynamics. Than it was to observe and find some of the AB background that would add depth to what I already had encountered.
When you view the gallery, you will note the over-saturation of color in some of the photos. Simply stated what registered with me initially, and still does, was when I first took in the view of the beach with the umbrellas, the mass of people, life guard stations, backdrop of the amusement park, etc. and what the camera recorded through the lens and onto the stick were not the same images. As an example, when you were younger and first walked through the entrance to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World what you took in was certainly more dynamic than your perception of it on the second or third visit. Even though the color, the content, etc. were all the same it’s the emotional connection that is beyond what the camera can record.
Another example of the lens understating the moment, that particular day, was the energy, emotion and rhythm that was on the boardwalk as people danced to live salsa music. The lens picked up the images and some pieces of those 3 components, but didn’t capture what I wanted. So, the approach for the beach and the dancers was not to over-manipulate the photos just to change the temperature of the photos and the degree of saturation to see how much more could be squeezed out of them and how close I could get to my initial observation.
Did I accomplish what I was after? I’m not sure yet.