Coney Island 1908

Here, Geldolph Adriaan Kessler gives us Coney Island in tones of grey. It’s printed on paper. I love how photography captures a moment, a slice of time. Look at the soft focus, and how the foreground figures seem to blend into the architecture behind them. It feels like the scene is still being developed, right before our eyes. You can almost feel the excitement of the crowds, smell the popcorn and saltwater taffy. I keep coming back to the sign above the shopfront, it’s a fuzzy white blur. It’s barely legible and reminds me that seeing isn't always about clarity. Sometimes it's about the mystery, the things we can't quite grasp. This photo reminds me of some of the early street photography of Alfred Stieglitz, capturing the energy of city life with a similar sense of spontaneity and grit. Like all great art, this piece invites us to see the world in a new way, to find beauty in the everyday, and to embrace the ambiguity of experience.