Oded Balilty – “Inside the flag, he looked so comfortable.”

“They came to pay their respects to those people that were killed there — not exactly for the country. That is why it was very interesting to see this guy cover himself with his flag.”

I interviewed Pulitzer-winning AP photographer Oded Balilty for the “Afterimage” section in today’s Express. Here’s more from the interview.

On the Gowanus at 5PM

Park Slope-ish, Brooklyn, NY

Authorized Parking Only – Brooklyn, NY

Also from Coney

Coney Island subway station, Brooklyn, NY

The Coney Island of Tomorrow

Cleaning the beach (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

I don’t live in New York. Like half of my generation, I’d love to. An interim solution for me has been to visit New York a lot. (Having a $35 travel expense hasn’t hurt.)

American tourists are lambasted for seeking constancy; sitting in the McDonald’s in Paris, or wandering in the Hotel Zone in Cancún, rather than spelunking the Catacombs or finding some fresh ruin to disrupt. I have to admit that I’ve sought consistency while traveling to New York – at Coney Island. Coney seemed an anachronism, a hearkening back to simpler and woolier times, Diane Arbus’s 1960s captivatingly androgynous, looming freakshow. It was potent stuff to a wide-eyed Southern-by-comparison boy, and it drew me back most visits, moth to SHOOT THE FREAK neon flame.

Arbus’s Coney is dying. A developer bought much of it, and is steadily destroying it. Astroland, mini-golf, hot dog vendors, it’s all to become condos and glossy cineplexes.

The ending has already begun. Here’s the mini-golf course in 2005, with a few die-hard players defying a summer squall:

Diehards (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) – 2005-07

And here’s the same golf course a few weeks ago:

The waterfall (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

Half of Coney is already boarded up. Across the street from what used to be a go-cart racetrack:

Grandpa’s Bus Line (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

Since one fence picture begets another, here’s what’s left of the track itself:

Go-cart tracks in ugly light (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

Even the Aquarium’s mural has been rendered soulless. Here’s April 2006:

Rasta Poseidon (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) – 2006-04

and May 2007: (At least Brighton Beach seems thus far unaffected.)

At least it has sharks (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) – 2007-05

One bright spot among the devastation – Deno’s Wonder Wheel gets a new paint job:

Man, that’s bright (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) – 2007-05

Needless to say, the new face of Coney is not universally loved; it’s being greeted with outrage and pointless snippiness. Neither reaction is likely to stop developers.

The Cyclone (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY)

The Cyclone’s supposed to live another day. Yet it’s a wooden rollercoaster, for cryin’ out loud; its days, too, are numbered, except perhaps as an oddity. (But being oddities didn’t help many of the other rides and theme parks.)

And so Coney Island, self-same for half a century, fades into yesteryear. I guess I’ll look for my consistency in Penn Station. (Ah, crap!) Toodles, Coney; see you around…

Boardwalk (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) – 2006-04

Door B

2006-05-26

St. Pattie’s at E 77th

and when all else fails, drum: (just outside of Penn Station)

on the way

Straight off the bus.

Welcome.

I’m a freshly graduated photojournalist, entering a profession charitably described as “changing.”

You can expect to find photographs, curios, wimbly musings, and angst herein.

The first batch is found above, in a tableau from Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I hope you like it.