Coney Island, Faces of the Boardwalk Project: Pure street photography with strobes by Nigel Morris

5/28/2014 ISO 1200 Magazine 0 Comments

Nigel Morris (website) is a Brooklyn based portrait and editorial Photographer. In 2010 he began a personal project "Coney Island, Faces of the Boardwalk ". In this story Nigel explains how important is personal work for photographers and his personal experiences:

Nigel Morris

Back in June of 2013, I was contacted by a German film company called Vidicom, asking if I was interested in being in a documentary about interesting people on the east coast. They said that they had found my work online, while searching for topics related to Coney Island, Brooklyn. For two years, I shot a project about the people on the boardwalk at Coney Island, called, “Coney Island, Faces of the Boardwalk (all images)“.

I have lived in Brooklyn for practically my entire life and have always been drawn to Coney Island. Most people know Coney Island for the rides and sideshows, but the boardwalk has a soul all of it's own. As a child, my parents would bring my siblings and I to Coney Island, but we were forbidden to go on, or even near the boardwalk. This was mostuly due to the high volume of crime, and drug use that took place on the boardwalk, and under it, back in the 80's. That was my memory of the boardwalk growing up. An unknown place of evil, basically. As I matured, my inquistive nature took over, and I began to explore the boardwalk. What I have learned about the boardwalk, was that it is now a virtual melting pot. They say New York is the "Melting Pot", and I feel that the boardwalk supports that theory very accurately

Vidicom found it, and loved it. So, I jumped at the chance, and in September 2013, they shot my portion of the documentary. I had such a blast with the crew that we ended up going over the scheduled time of shooting. I am so humbled by the experience of it all. Sven Jaax was the director, and made the day more fun and adventurous than like work.

I have been holding on to this for months, and wanted to speak on it, but, as we all know, mums the word prior to something like this being released. The english translation of the documentary, is, “The East Coast of the United States, and the episode I was in aired on May 21st, on a television station in France called “Arte“.

The documentary actually has 5 episodes, and I am really excited about seeing all of them once they are released in English. The response I have gotten so far, since it aired, has been so warm and such a humbling experience. I feel so very fortunate to receive such kind, and supportive messages via various social media platforms, from people that have watched the documentary.

Another thanks to Sven for the behind the scenes images below.