Coney Island has seen glory days, destructive fires, and the utter desolation of the 1970s when I first took a series of black and white pictures. The specter of urban planner Robert Moses, and even Donald Trump, hangs over the place. It was Moses who built housing projects adjacent to the amusement parks, and Fred Trump, with Donald at his side, who demolished Steeplechase Park and developed high rises for Whites only. But Coney Island is one of those places that resonates with history and the persistence of memory. It lives on, colorful, a little tawdry, visually spectacular.
