(from “Coney Island”)
© Bruce Gilden

Magnum photographer Bruce Gilden, b. 1946 in Brooklyn, NY, attended Penn State to study sociology but eventually became bored with it. Then in 1968, after seeing Antonioni’s Blow Up, Gilden purchased a camera and began learning about photography, teaching himself as he went.

Gilden’s early pictures from Coney Island (taken the year after acquiring his first camera) have an ameteur quality to them but his ability to find and approach his subjects is endearing and the moments he captured are remarkable. As the photographs have aged they’ve become memorable tokens of the Coney Island that many have learned to love—the sunbathers, the weekenders, and the sideshow freaks who stroll the boardwalk and sands.

Bruce Gilden once said in an interview with Source magazine, “The people that I photograph I enjoy. I am stimulated by them. I like people that have something different and special and I think that’s what makes life special.”

After a recent visit to Coney Island (my first time, in fact), it didn’t take long for me to feel what a unique place it really was. And after spending some time with Gilden’s work, I can see a portion of the history unfold, though the eccentricity and warmth that his subjects exude.

(from “Coney Island”)
© Bruce Gilden

I still remember, it was a Thursday morning in June and I was living in Queens. I hitchhiked to Coney island. It took me one-and-a-half hours and when I got there, no one was around. I realized that people generally only go to the beach on weekends. I saw this little fellow standing by himself in the midway. He told me that his name was Little Louie and that he had bad teeth…

As with this image, it’s the straightness and honesty evident in his photographs which I most admire.

See more of this work online here.

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