Coney Island – Dead and Alive

30 Nov 2015

It was my first trip across the Atlantic to the States and it was exciting to be in New York. The storms had passed, and the autumnal sunshine was in it’s peak. I wanted to capture the palette of New York, just as Saul Leiter would have. Yet, 3 days later on a quiet Halloween morning, I find myself on Coney Island. I see a different palette of colours. Bright yellows, and eye catching reds. Not the fast fleeting yellows of the NYC taxi cabs, but a more sauntering yellow, of a slow pace of life.

Coney Island is an anachronism. It seems to want to go back to the post World War II era, of it’s first decline, resisting any attempts to bring it into the modern age. These tensions between dying and living again, are seen, whilst sauntering along the boardwalk.

The old folks, from the neighbouring senior homes, greeting each other during their morning walks and the old man showing off on his classic Schwinn bike. Coney Island felt like a place that resisted youth, even when a gang of 6 year olds, dressed in Halloween outfits stormed Nathan’s Hotdogs.

All photos taken with a Fuji X100T