Coney Island 1973

"From 1973, Jerry L. Thompson was regularly taking his cumbersome 8" x 10" large format camera and a shoulder bag full of film down to Coney Island. He captured proto-hip-hop teenagers, hippies, fun-fair workers, young couples in love and street gang members. The pictures tell a story of sub-culture. People who are a product of the unique time and place in which they found themselves. Each portrait is a memento from a brief encounter, a dialectic between photographer and subject. These anonymous figures often invited themselves to pose in front of Thompson's lens without receiving any further guidance. They allowed themselves be viewed and interpreted, communicating with their attitude, body language and their customised clothing.' The results are not constructed fantasies, but are inextricably linked to the real world "in the toughest and deepest way." Thompson believes "photography can achieve this in a way that no other medium can." One of the great books of portraiture, and one of the few documents of NYC street gangs in the seventies. Jerry L Thompson worked for Walker Evans, as well as developing his own approach to street photography and writing about photography and the image. As well as the pictures Jerry contributes a pretty serious background story and essay, which honestly is worth it's own weight in gold. I really like this book - which you can probably tell!