Exhibitions: Click! A Crowd-Curated Exhibition

Dominica Paige. Aitor, Coney Island, 2007. All rights reserved

Artist Statement

Places are not only physical and geographical, but culturally sacred, as well. There’s beauty in the nostalgia and peculiar fantasy of Coney Island, the infamous Brooklyn landmark soon to be lost to developers intent on profit over cultural preservation. While city planners mark it as progress, many Brooklynites regard it as the destruction of part of the borough’s quintessence. “Aitor,” shot digitally in 2007, portrays a convergence of eras: his stylistic homage to the past, his lifestyle as a current Brooklyn resident, and a symbol of what we stand to lose if we continue to value beauty over heritage.

7 Comments

technically a strong image, but in regards to the statement...why are we holding on to coney island as it is today? because we want to believe it's the coney island of 50 years ago? new york city is about change...the more i think about this the more i think it's time to let coney island do just that.

Very good portrait of one of the hipsters who are destroying Brooklyn with irony and rarified tastes that only support specialty shops that do not serve the larger community. His sneer and squinty eye are so perfect in casting him as the villain, the rich white male who can endulge his vices, facial hair and other peculiarities while the working class struggle around him. He looks like a southern plantation owner, a dandy, a sap. Too bad the artist statement doesn't reflect on all this.

Wonderful portrait.

nothing

this image marries my dreaming of brooklyn

Where do carneys go when the carnival shuts down? shave their funny mustaches and move from town to town.

image is evocative of why photographer says