Since its heyday in the early 20th century, Coney Island has endured years of neglect. Empty lots and boarded-up shops litter the city, one sixth of the people live in public housing, unemployment is twice New York’s average and the place has become a dumping ground for the city’s poor. While several redevelopment proposals in the last decade have failed, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s rezoning plan has been approved by city council and will create new amusements, upscale hotels, retail outlets, and 4,500 new low- and moderate-income housing units. But many worry that the historic kitschy character of Coney Island that has brought misfits of all race, color and class from around the world will fade away in the face of gentrification.
While working with MediaStorm in the summer of 2009, I regularly made the bike ride from my home in Park Slope to the shores of Coney Island to explore and photograph my surroundings. It was initially a way for me to escape the confines of the vast city but gradually became something more. I found that it was a place where people could come and be themselves, without the typical societal pressures. As a friend I met there who lives under the boardwalk said, “When I’m here, I’m free.”
The cast of characters that graze the shore come from all walks of life and represent the diversity of New York itself. And many come without inhibitions, expressing themselves in all sorts of strange and interesting ways. So I set out to explore the place, with no real goal other than the wander aimlessly and make some pictures.
