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Posts Tagged ‘Coney Island USA’

Happy Mermaid Day! Take the Subway or Submarine to the Parade

Posted in Events, tagged Coney Island, Coney Island USA, Mermaid Parade, MTA, public transportation, subway on June 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Mermaid Parade 2009: Metrocard Chrysler Building Mermaid. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i

If you’re coming to Coney Island to see the Mermaid Parade, we recommend taking the subway ( F, Q to West 8th Street; D, F, N, Q to Stillwell Ave) as this Metrocard Chrysler Building Mermaid did last year. Or take your submarine….

Mermaid Parade 2009: Yellow Submarine Merman. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i

If you want to avoid traffic jams, leave your car at home! Although parking is available at MCU Park, New York Aquarium and private lots, Mermaid Day is one of Coney’s busiest days of the season. If you must come by car and want to avoid traffic jams, we recommend parking a few subway stops away and then hopping on the train. Bicycling is also the way to go!

Mermaid Parade 2009: Rabbi Abraham Abraham & Bob Stewart of the Coney Island Ice Breakers. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i

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Coney Island Photography Workshop with Kevin C Downs

Posted in Photography, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, Coney Island USA, documentary photo, Kevin C Downs, photography workshop, street photography, Suzy Lafferty on June 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Coney Island, Ruby's, Mermaid Day Parade 2007. Photo © Kevin C Downs

Kevin Downs’ annual summer photo documentary workshop at Coney Island USA began earlier this month, but there’s still time to join. Consider it your passport to see Coney in a new light all summer long. The Saturday sessions, which continue through September 4, generally begin with a review at noon in the Coney Island Museum and go through the evening. Tuition is a very reasonable $300. From the course description:

Throughout its history, Coney Island has drawn many famous photographers: from Walker Evans to Weegee; Lou Stettner to Bruce Gilden. All have come to document this part of Brooklyn that is full of energy and creativity.

During this workshop, students will be documenting the changing conditions of this historic and magical place. Students will be shooting during the day and night, the icons of Coney Island: the Cyclone, Deno’s Wonder Wheel, the Mermaid Parade, and the personalities that inhabit the Boardwalk and the surrounding areas, from the water to Mermaid Avenue, developing their powers of observaton and their techniques.

Students will be asked to think of a specific documentary theme to focus on for the entire 14 sessions. Some examples could include: “The People of Coney Island”, “Architecture of Coney Island”, etc. The documentary theme can be anything that tells a story and documents the people, architecture and/or landscape of Coney Island. All themes must be approved by the instructor.

Coney Island, The Zipper from The Last Days of Coney Island and The Real Brooklyn. Photo © Kevin C Downs

Full disclosure: Kevin Downs as well as workshop participants Bruce Handy and Suzy Lafferty are friends of ATZ. We’ve learned a lot about photography from looking at their flickr photostreams and have selected their photos for our magazine articles and blog posts.

Coney Island resident and ATZ contributor Bruce Handy has taken Kevin’s class for the past three seasons and has assembled an impressive flickr set of his favorite photos from the workshop. “Kevin is an excellent teacher who brings 125% to the table,” says Bruce. “Our classes last year included field trips to see famous photographers, among them Louis Stettner. At least four times last year prominent photographers were guest lecturers at our class. Kevin arranges all this with joy. Kevin is a champion of Coney Island. He brings out the best in people. He is a very humble person, a passionate, natural teacher.”

Coney Island. Photo © Kevin C Downs

Suzy Lafferty’s photos from the 2009 workshop appear on her blog Satsuma’s Junkyard, beginning with the Coney Island Dancers in Coney #1 and ending with a couple kissing at twilight on Henderson Walk. Says Suzy: “After having gone to grad school for photojournalism, a rather mummifying experience, Kevin’s workshop helped me to resurrect my love of photography: the search and the longing and the state of being that defines documentary photography for me.”

On the Boardwalk, Coney Island. Photo © Kevin C Downs

Suzy describes the Coney Island Workshop: “We would gather and talk about photography for hours, often losing track of time, and then we would set out in droves or make solitary rounds of the candy apples, the atlantic splash zone, or the boardwalk, seeking our moments or following a story. The class was the rarest of finds. It’s dimensions stretch three months in length, it costs close to nothing, and the hours each Saturday are sprawling. Many times Kevin stayed out with us until midnight, roaming and combing the night for twisted and heartfelt tales.”

For info contact Kevin C Downs at kevincdownsphoto@mac.com or 917-607-3935. Kevin’s website is kevincdownsphoto.com. You can register online at Coney Island USA’s website.

Coney Island, 2008. Photo © Kevin C Downs

Photo of The Day: The Lizardman on Stage in Coney Island

Posted in Photo of the Day, sideshow, tagged body modification, Bruce Handy, Coney Island USA, freak, Lizardman, Luna Park on May 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Lizardman on Coney Island USA's Bally Stage, August 8, 2009. Photo © Bruce Handy/Pablo 57 via flickr

Save the dates! As we reported on Monday, “The Lizardman” will return to Coney Island this summer to perform in a free stage show at the new Luna Park. “I will be there July 30 and 31 and August 6 and 7,” he tells ATZ. “I’m excited about it even though I don’t really know much yet. It’s just great that there will be another performance venue in Coney that by all I can tell thus far will be putting on great shows and I get to be part of it thanks to my friend Todd Robbins.”

If you missed the Lizardman’s appearance as “Guest Freak” at Coney Island USA last August, you have to see his photo to begin to understand why he is one of the luminaries of the sideshow world. This totally tattooed, self-made freak’s body mods include subdermally implanted horns, fangs and a lizardlike split tongue. “My physical appearance is part of a transformation project I began as an undergraduate working in body based performance art,” writes the Lizardman on his website. His new book Once More Through the Modified Looking Glass documents his transformation.

In addition to his striking looks, the Lizardman performs classic sideshow acts like sword swallowing, fire-eating, and escaping from a straitjacket as well as the weirdest stunt we’ve ever seen: mental flossing with live snakes! We’ll be curious to see if the Lizardman comes up with a lunatic new stunt for Luna Park.

“I’m just happy that reports of Coney Island’s death continue to be greatly exaggerated,” the Lizardman told ATZ. “And I am looking forward to working there again this summer, both at Luna and Sideshows by the Seashore.”