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what is coney to you?
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Hello all, to those who I met this summer at Coney, it was good to meet you all... I myself have finally found some time to go through all the images I took this past summer at Coney!
Here is a question I have for the group:
What are the top 10 things you think of when you think of Coney Island?
I will post my set of images soon!!!
James
Posted at 4:34AM, 11 October 2009 PDT
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Hi James,
I'll be ruminating on the top ten and will reply in a couple of days.
Pablo (Bruce)
Posted 32 months ago.
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Hey! We sure had a fun day of shooting, didn't we?
1. The Gut.
2. Luna Park. Definitive Coney Island.
3. Topsy the Elephant. It was John Haskell's essay "Elephant Feelings," a historical-fiction short story in his book, I Am Not Jackson Pollock that first motivated me to go to Coney Island and photograph there. And it's frustrating that, with all my historical research on Topsy, there's no place to write about my viewpoint on the topic.
4. Animal hijinks and abuse. I go through, with utter fascination, old accounts of the vast menagerie of wild animals that have inhabited CI. Something else I'd like to write about. I feel I owe it to the poor creatures for what they went through for human "entertainment."
5. Ancient creaky rides. The kind where you risked life and limb when you got on them. Or even just standing next to them.
6. Public drunkenness.
7. Pain's Spectacles. Something else I'd like to know more and write about.
8. Public drunkenness.
9. The utter cacophony of sights, fashion, sounds on the Boardwalk. Includes also Numbers 6 and 8.
10. Photography. Especially the bad stuff. Seeing some of the hipster items that have been languishing on the Coney Island Documentation Project group make me just want to give up photographing altogether -- it just shows anyone can pick up a camera, maybe have some cross processing done and put on a disc, and be considered a serious "photographer."
Oh, I want to add a Number 11, because I need "that extra push over the cliff" (as Nigel Tufnel said):
11. Public drunkenness.
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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Raven Cat edited this topic 31 months ago.
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My Coney Credo
1.Coney Island is a southern beach which means the sun shines directly on it from morning to night. It is a natural wonderland where people can get back to nature enjoying the movements and sounds of the waves, feel the warming rays of the sun. A place to feed and sooth the five senses that have atrophied over time because of the civilization of nature. Nature is not televised and does not require an exchange of wampum.
2. The Coney Island Sideshow by the Sea is a place to believe in the sixth and seven senses. It is the Mecca of sideshows. Sideshow performers from all over the world recognize Coney as the cathedral of sideshows. Where the entertainers hang out in the Freak Bar in living color, up close and personal. Yes, I have a crush on the sweet sword swallower.
3. The Mermaid Parade – is an art parade, offers a tribute to nature for a fruitful summer and has beautiful exotic mermaids.
4. Coney Island is a people watchers utopia. People from all over the world, and sometimes from Bensonhurst, can be seen and heard on the boardwalk, on the beach and in the bars.
5. It is timeless, like baseball, Coney reminds me of 1940. Summer after summer they play the game, the players change, but the excitement, the mathematics of chance never changes. It’s a place where Zoltar grants you the wish to remain young forever.
6. Photographers love Coney Island for the changing LIGHT and for the diverse opportunities to capture the decisive moment.
7. Coney Island is one of the last authentic neighborhoods in NYC. The amusement area in particular is the most diverse area in the world. On any given day, upwards of 20 different languages can be heard on the boardwalk.
8. It is a community. A community where people talk to each other, a place where people care about your well being. Sure, it’s falling apart, but the people who work here, who live here, who visit here, ARE AUTHENTIC. The people will continue to come to Coney Island no matter what is built because they know they can enjoy themselves.
9. There are characters in Coney. When I was young, characters were plentiful, but as time passes, the majority of people relent to the status quo. In Coney Island, people are not afraid to show their uniqueness, wearing their inner soul tattooed on their arms.
10. I’ve been living in Coney Island for six years now. We all come at this from different angles, from different backgrounds. I grew up in Queens. My childhood was a “city on the streets” upbringing. I had about twenty friends from all areas of the world and we learned respect and trust from the neighborhood shopkeepers and families. We grew up on the streets. I knew from an early age to say “excuse me” when I walked past an elderly person on the street.
When city planners are NOT from an area like Coney Island or from the city, they don’t understand the subtle intimacies of trust and public responsibility taught by example on the streets. Big box apartment buildings, big box stores and corporate amusement parks destroy human interaction. Big boxes are money based, how much money can I make utilizing my resources. Authentic communities, where the individual can blossom, like Coney Island are based on people talking to each other and taking care of each other.
11. Fireworks on the beach, every Friday night.
12. Coney Island is the terminus of four major subway lines. People from outside the city see the subway as a criminal way to treat animals. I see it as an hour each morning and evening to relax, read a book, listen to music and at the same time take me from the Coney Island amusement park to the Manhattan amusement park.
13. The solitude of the winter boardwalk, watching the sunset over the water and listening to the Astro Tower sing it's sad song.
14. The free shows on the boardwalk including the Coney Island dancers, kareoke, the Spanish bands and dancers and the boardwalk entertainers. Yes I have a crush on the woman who paints clown faces on the children.
Originally posted 32 months ago.
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Pablo 57 edited this topic 32 months ago.
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Thoughtfully said, as always, Pablo!
Posted 32 months ago.
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James, I will have something for you when I get back from DC.
Posted 32 months ago.
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Thanks for the post's, they were both great reads!
Posted 32 months ago.
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CONEY ISLAND USA 2007-2011 SUMMER PHOTO DOCUMENTARY WORKSHOP /
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