Coney Island 40 Years. spanning the years 1970-2010, is a meditation on time, history, persistence and longevity (of both Coney Island and Harvey Stein), fate and public social behavior. It is an important record of a passing way of life, of a Coney Island that is fast changing in the wake of its recent development. The book is important as a document of a time and of an iconic American place.

The photographs give the viewer a sense of what Coney Island is beneath the obvious rides and beach, it’s not just a playground, it is where life is lived and looms large. The book depicts Coney Island before it becomes unrecognizable with gloss, gentrification, and a certain phoniness. Coney Island 40 Years is about Coney Island before it loses its connection with its past. Coney Island is the ultimate melting pot with the old, young, white, Hispanic, black, rich and poor. It’s the poor man’s Riviera, a place where you can be yourself or who you ought
to be.