Amador Gallery The Fuller Building 41 E 57 Street 6 Fl NY 10022 New York États-Unis
Bruce Gilden, NYC CONEY ISLAND 1969, Gelatin silver print 24" x 20" © Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos
Shot over the course of the late sixties, seventies and early eighties, the images illustrate the social and cultural changes that have occurred over time at Coney Island, while testifying to the almost quixotic and intransigent uniqueness of this famous neighborhood. In Gilden’s photographs, the bright sand of the beach becomes a canvas upon which an excess of flesh unfurls.
Sitting on the outskirts of the five boroughs, the world famous pleasure beach of Coney Island has been the summer destination for New Yorkers since its heyday in the 1890s. Towards the end of the 1960s, one year after he first picked up a camera, Bruce Gilden took the subway train through Brooklyn to capture the sunbathers, the weekenders, the sideshow booths and the Cyclone rollercoaster.
Coney Island's reputation has steadily slipped since Gilden started to photograph there, and is now known as a place where the poor who cannot escape the summer city heat go for thrills. Regardless of this reputation, Gilden's ability to eke out the characters and eccentricities give the beach and its surrounding neighborhood a humorous view of daily life from the sixties through until the late 1980s.
.jpg)
Bruce Gilden, NYC CONEY ISLAND 1976, Gelatin silver print 24" x 20" © Bruce Gilden / Magnum Photos