Sun and People on New York's beach

An article about the exhibiton on The New York Times, begins with the following sentence: "Is there any spot on earth with higher densities of flesh, noise, salt, fat and naked, hormonal humanity than Coney Island? Only in New York would people choose this as a place to unwind." Wrong answer, this place is in Spain. Summer is coming. Spain is one of the world's top destinations for summer on its beaches, so know other places and see they are not that different, actually quite similar, it is always interesting.

When Aaron Rose began photographing Coney Island in 1961, he bypassed the bluster of the theme parks and sideshows for the more intimate interactions of beach dwellers. Wielding his camera surreptitiously, observing as if from a neighboring blanket, Rose documented a “sun-baked melting pot” of beachgoers of all ages, ethnicities, and walks of life, each one utterly unselfconscious, absorbed in a world of his or her own.

One of the earliest art photographers to use C-print paper and chromogenic processing, Rose made images with rosy tans and cool whites that were inspired by the summer skin tones he saw around him. The 70 images on display in this exhibition capture a palpable sense of the manners and mores of 1960s New Yorkers at their most unguarded; as photography critic Vince Aletti noted, “the work’s easy rapport and its casual erotic charge are thrilling and touchingly sweet.” Aaron Rose’s Coney Island is “a place where privacy is a state of mind."

"Aaron Rose is in the pantheon of photographers -Weegee, Bruce Davidson, Lisette Model- who capture New Yorkers thourgh a highly personalized and deeply artistic lens." said Sean Corcoran, the Curator of Prints & Photographs at the City Museum.

Aaron Rose was born in New York in the early 1940s and has lived in the city for his entire life. For more than 60 years, Rose has explored nost just the city, but also the basic elements of photography, light, and chemistry to create a unique style of visual imagery. Rose had already produced more than 25,000 photographs -each work printed only once- when he was discovered by the art world in the 1990s. These photographs were hidden from everyone except close friends and family until he was asked to show a small selection of photographs at the Whitney Biennial in 1997. He also displayed a small collection of his work at the Paul Kasmin Gallery entitled Aron Rose: Unique Photographs in 1997.

Venue.- Museum of the City of New York. 1220 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029. US.
Dates.- Open on Friday, May 9 and remain on view until Sunday, August 3, 2014.