Brooklyn Queens - Personal work at Coney Island
Wedding season will be here like any second. (2 weeks for me actually!) The off-season in New England are those long winter months, and most photographers spend a lot of time working on marketing, booking jobs for the upcoming year and traveling. Personally, I didn't get to do much traveling this year. Actually, these days, I don't travel at all unless it's for work (which, with two kids truly feels like a vacation for me). Combine that with the fact that this winter was painful. Brutal. Awful and DEPRESSING.
Now don't get me wrong, I love where I live and I have lots of friends, but there is nothing like seeing your best friends. The ones you have history with. The ones that know all the crazy things that went on in your past. The people you can tell war stories with that no one understands like them. I was feeling a little extra on the low side in January. Sad. My kids, especially my son with Autism, can be really hard to deal with.
So after a school drop off, I pulled over to the side of the road and called my favorite Brooklyn Queen. My best friend, Dari. She listened to me. For a long time. Then out of nowhere she suggested that I come on down to New York and pay her a visit. So I drove home, sat my husband down and told him, "Listen, the only thing I want for the holidays is a long weekend to go see Dari. No gifts, nothing. Just that". Of course he more than supportive. And just like that, I was in my car, heading towards Brooklyn for some girl time. I told her the ONLY thing I wanted to do when I was there was see Coney Island.
I really wanted to see it in the winter because I felt I needed to challenge myself and photograph it. When people ask me what I shoot I always say "Faces and food". But I made the conscious choice to photograph the world of Coney Island while it was closed. To add an extra challenge in, I decided to rent the Nikon D750 to take out for a spin, and it did not disappoint.
When I got to NY, I spent some time with Dari's amazing daughter Zoe and then it was off to Coney Island to try my hand at NOT shooting faces. I loved what I was able to create and when I was done, I said to Dari "God, it's so refreshing and different for me to not photograph people. Not shoot faces as the goal." And then she said something so amazing. "Coney Island may not have a face, but it has a ton of personality". And to that I say, "FOR REALS!!"
