{"id":7237,"date":"2025-07-13T18:19:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T18:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/7237\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T18:19:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T18:19:04","slug":"stephen-salmieri-first-photos-of-coney-island-1967-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/7237\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Salmieri: First Photos of Coney Island, 1967 &#8211; 1972"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI used to be a fireball of energy \u2013 if I had two or three days a week to spare where I wasn\u2019t on an assignment I was out with my camera in the city. I covered this city like an archeologist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Stephen Salmieri, Coney Island Trips, 1967 \u2013 1972<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-476953\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1971-bikini.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1971 bikini\" width=\"1010\" height=\"776\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flashbackshop.com\/collections\/all-t-shirts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/In-Post-ad-3.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Between 1967 and 1972, <a href=\"https:\/\/flashbak.com\/tag\/new-york\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Yorker<\/a> Stephen Salmieri captured life on <a href=\"https:\/\/flashbak.com\/tag\/coney-island\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coney Island<\/a>. \u201cIt was my first self-assigned project at 20 years of age, having just graduated from the School of Visual Arts,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn choosing my subject I gravitated naturally to the familiar destination of my adolescent bike adventures. I made the hour ride to Coney Island with all my cameras in tow all year round. I carried a 4\u00d75 field camera, a 6x6cm and a 35mm format, and lots of Tri-X film\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 1969, CAMERA magazine approached me at my first exhibition at the Underground Gallery. In my naivety, I did not realize that Coney Island was also the choice territory for such luminaries as <a href=\"https:\/\/flashbak.com\/tag\/robert-frank\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Frank<\/a>, Lisette Model, Leon Levinstein and <a href=\"https:\/\/flashbak.com\/tag\/weegee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Weegee<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t until the magazine published these photographs as part of their seminal Coney Island issue in 1971 that I realized I had become part of a vaunted tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476952\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-show.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1969\" width=\"1010\" height=\"802\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is like alchemy, making the negative. I think what is getting lost in the digital age when you see your pictures instantly is the process of seeing your negative in your head when you are shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Stephen Salmieri\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476943\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"799\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476947\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-swimmer.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1969\" width=\"1010\" height=\"1011\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese spare and emotional first images of a forgotten community, now lost in time, allowed me to forge a vision at a pivotal moment in my young life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Stephen Salmieri<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476946\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-photos.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"793\"  \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flashbackshop.com\/collections\/all-t-shirts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/In-Post-ad-3.png\" alt=\"t-shirts\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476945\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1968.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1968\" width=\"1010\" height=\"1010\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1968<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476944\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1972.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"789\"  \/><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/flashbackshop.com\/collections\/all-t-shirts\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/In-Post-ad-3.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1972<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476954\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-beach.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1969\" width=\"1010\" height=\"984\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-476951\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1971-.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"789\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1971<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-476950\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-love.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"1007\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-476949\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1970-pictures.jpeg\" alt=\"Coney Island, 1970\" width=\"1010\" height=\"1005\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1970<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-476948\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Coney-Island-1969-pictures.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1010\" height=\"692\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Coney Island, 1969<\/p>\n<p>Via an exhibition at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.josephbellows.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Bellows Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI used to be a fireball of energy \u2013 if I had two or three days a week&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-7237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}