Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Coney Island: Model of the Year

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle recently ran an article entitled 'As Coney Faces Change, Arts Venues Rush To Exhibit Photos of Amusement Area.' The article's titular point is well taken. As anyone who reads Kinetic Carnival knows, everyone from the Brooklyn Museum to the New Yorker has recently devoted space to Coney photography. YouTube is filled with short films seeking to 'document what might be the last season for Coney Island,' B-list TV stars are exhibiting their pictures of Coney Island, and numerous galleries and websites have been hosting Coney Island photo collections.

It's easy to see the rush of flashbulbs as a mere trend, spurred by people looking to capture the easy poetry of a decayed dreamland before redevelopment begins. Still, it's great to see Coney Island getting so much attention from photographers. After all, Coney Island is truly beautiful, and worth photographing. Though it is currently particularly trendy, photographing Coney Island is not a new thing; as the Brooklyn Museum's exhibit attests to, it's been going on for over a hundred years.


- post by Ben Nadler


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was struck by how many people I saw over the weekend out taking pictures on the boardwalk. I guess I wasn't expecting to see so many people out and about in Coney on a cold, snowy Saturday in February, but it's nice to see the renewed interest in the area -- it's definitely a great place to snap photos!