This is one of my favorite photographs in the book and a natural for the cover. It’s fun, warm, somewhat strange (with the reaching hands), and all about the beach at Coney Island. The Parachute Jump in the background situates us firmly at Coney.
I didn’t know the couple; I just came upon them while walking the beach. Obviously, they were happy to be photographed.

I took this image before the start of the Mermaid Parade. How could I not be attracted to this sea/she-creature? She has lots to be happy about. I got down low and close and photographed with a wide-angle lens to accentuate her two amazing attributes.

The Thunderbolt was built with a house below it, people—I think owners—actually lived in it. In 1990, it was not in use and decaying. For me, this photograph is all about the melancholy and loneliness of this once proud structure. The family is frozen forever in time gazing at it, perhaps pondering its history and limited future. Also in the book is a beautiful, I’d say ghostly photo of its tracks and abandoned cars. The structure, closed since 1981, was torn down surreptitiously by the city in the middle of a cold November 2000 night, much to the anger of preservationists and historians.

This was taken on a bitter cold February afternoon when Coney Island was devoid of people and largely covered with snow. I found an opening in a fence to enter the grounds and get close to the bees, stacked up and stored for the winter. The Wonder Wheel, another emblem of Coney Island, repeats the round shapes of the bee’s heads.

I can’t imagine any photographer not liking to photograph in fog. It imparts a soft, ethereal, transformative quality to almost any subject. I’m attracted to the bold, solid shapes of the streetlights contrasted against the quieter, almost tender presence of the usually dominant Parachute Jump.