About the Work
It was suggested that I might like to submit a proposal to the Whitney Museum of American Art for possible inclusion in an exhibition celebration Coney Island's centennial. It was further suggested that I might want to consider using the huge backlit Kodak display, which towers over commuters going home - and the homeless not going home - in Grand Central Station, New York City. I contacted Kodak, who said they would consider an image from me, if it filled the following criteria:
a) Kodak film only, b) upbeat, c) no 'message', d) impossible to mistake what it was. I went to Coney Island and arranged to photograph the 'Polar Bear Club' on the beach in front of the Ferris Wheel at night. This club bathes in the Atlantic every week of the year. They are all ages, shapes, and sizes. However, Kodak let it be known that they were not happy with the club's 'profile'. In addition, Coney Island was not an image the company, on reflection, wished to be associated with.
I had intended this work to be in two parts - the display in Grand Central, and a record of the display in Grand Central, in the Whitney.
″I still use the same approach to my work: I get an idea, think of the title and then make the work. So not much has changed since 1964″
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