CONEY ISLAND

[Joan]

:)After seeing Lenny's picture of Palisades Park, I started thinking about Coney Island.

Went there many times. When I was young, I would go on the Cyclone and loved the thrill of it. Also went on the Parachute Jump! I was quite brave then. However, now I would never go on those rides - am a big chicken!!!

Loved going to Coney Island. I remember going on the Merry-Go-Round and trying to grab the ring. Did that again about ten years ago. It was still fun.

Loved walking the boardwalk and eating those Coney Island franks. It was just a fun place.

How many of you have been there?

[charlieq]

Joan,

I used to go there alot. Started going there in the 1940's when my mom and grandma would take us. All the way there on the D train.

[pruittigoe]

I'm a Coney Island regular, and perhaps you'd like to see some of my pictures of the place:

www.flickr.com/photos/raven_cat/

Actually, I just gave a lecture at the CI Museum last weekend on my photography.

[Deleted]

Just forwarded your link to my home email Pruitt -- When I get home I'll check it out... I used to love Coney Island as a kid... My dad used to take me to aquarium which i loved and then the amusement park which was great... It was a kids dream come true... I've got some old pictures that I need to scan in...

[charlieq]

Pruitt,

Great pictures.

[isabelle]

MY FRIEND JUST WENT TO CONEY ISLAND LAST SUNDAY....SHE SAID THAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT TEARING A GREAT PORTION OF IT DOWN, AND LEAVING THE CYCLONE, THE PARACHUTE JUMP AND NATHANS. SHE TALKED TO A FEW PEOPLE THERE AND IT IS NOT YET WRITTEN IN BLOOD. RUMORS ARE TO EITHER REBUILD AN AMUSEMENT PARK OR PUT UP CONDOS. ANYBODY HERE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS?

[Joan]

Pruitt..............................just saw your pictures. Very nice!

[Joan]

CharlieQ......................I started going to Coney Island around 1952/53. That's when I started to become a daredevil. Not the same person anymore.

[pruittigoe]

Thanks for the compliments Charlie and James. It's funny how it seems every photographer congregates at Coney Island, and walking down the boardwalk one meets all sorts of people that you know.

And yes, isabelle, a shopping-mall developer has bought most of the waterfront and plans to tear down all the amusements at Coney Island this winter (half of 'em were torn down last winter), and build 40-story condos along the Boardwalk, along with a sanitized theme-park amusement area for the tourists. The Cyclone, Wonderwheel, and Parachute Jump are all landmarked, but the buildings will be twice as tall as that. There is a lot of controversy, and people (such as myself and others) are opposing this.

The people who go there now could never afford to go there with all the rich yuppies.

[pruittigoe]

..and thanks to bronxgirl, too!

[Deleted]

Pruitt, just checked out the pix at home and they are amazing!! The colors are so vivid!!!

[pruittigoe]

Heartfelt thanks....and if you think the colors on the computer screen are vivid, you should see the prints! (for those of you who are technically minded, sRGB on the computer and Adobe RGB in the prints on the best paper). People just go crazy over them.

I really think this is the result of having cataracts when I was in my forties...the surgery results in a greatly enhanced rendition of colors, and I think this affects me when I'm mixing the colors in Photoshop. It also explains why I take a lot of photographs with the "worst" possible cameras (either plastic toys or ones I make myself), having had all these visual impairments that I think should be conveyed through my pictures. I was talking to someone a few days ago about the possibility of teaching photography and art to visually-impaired kids and adults.