I've always liked this strange feeling when you visit a summer hotspot during the winter season. People leave, the warm energy in the air disappears. It's kind of sad, but also calm and hopeful.
During my visit in NYC last winter I went to the legendary Coney Island, the site of amusement parks, a beach and boardwalk, in the southwestern part of Brooklyn. The amusement park was closed, the boardwalk was empty. As soon as I arrived, this weird mixture of melancholy and expectancy filled my veins.
With my photo series ‘Lonely Island’, I've tried to convey this feeling and show a different face of Coney Island, a well-known holiday destination of the early 20th century. Coney Island still attracts crowds of people during the summer season when, especially on weekends, the salty breeze from the ocean smells like a mixture of grill, fried oil, candy apples, popcorn and sunblock.
When the season is over, the boardwalk gets deserted, the fast food shops close up, the crowds on the beach leave their places to the seagulls, the trendy summer hotspot becomes a dead zone. The dramatic, dark atmosphere on a cloudy late winter day creating an obvious contrast to the exaggerated artificial colors and the kitsch charm of Coney Island gives you an uncanny feeling of a ghost town.
