Coney Island: The Lost Horizon

"In your hands you'll find a collection of color street photography taken in Coney Island during the year 2007 that was presented in a solo exhibition at The 440 Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. This was the year I visited Coney Island at least once a week with my son. I very much enjoyed these visits because they filled me with a sense of nostalgia. Every time I see this place, I'm struck sentimental by the past -- I imagine Coney Island as it was in its prime before World War II. Instead of crowds, I feel a vast space. The amusements, as well as the food, are easy to obtain, but the carefree environment isn't nearly as important as the people who enjoy it. I don't see a tourist attraction, but instead a refuge for city dwellers during the hot summer months. In Coney Island, all kinds of people come together, even if they aren't exactly best friends back at home -- disparate cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds enjoy this place in tandem. It is because of this I feel a double sense of nostalgia every time I visit -- one of what Coney Island was in its prime and one of what it is now and may lose to its uncertain future. My images capture a moment in time – some anonymous someone’s personal moment on the boardwalk, the streets or the sand of a city dweller's close-by refuge."