Getty Museum
Coney Island Boardwalk
Creator
Walker EvansAmerican Photographer · 1903–1975
All works by this person →> Leaving aside the mysteries and the inequities of human talent, brains, taste, and reputations, the matter of art in photography may come down to this: it is the capture and projection of the delights of seeing; it is the defining of observation full and felt. > > -- Walker Evans Walker Evans began to photograph in the late 1920s, making snapshots during a European trip. Upon his return to New Y
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1929
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
The erection of the Coney Island Boardwalk in 1923 was precipitated by the rapid influx of visitors by subway three years earlier. A three million dollar wooden structure, eighty feet wide and half the length of the resort, it became the perfect promenade from which to see and be seen. It also proved to be a valuable observation deck for Walker Evans, who photographed this smartly dressed woman leaning over the rail watching the throngs on the beach below. The patterned fabric of her two-piece ensemble looks like clusters of balloons, providing a joyous anchor for the image.
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