Vintage Photographs of Coney Island Beach-Goers Will Make You Want to Soak Up the Sun

These photos of Coney Island beach-goers were some of the first images rendered using C-print paper and chromogenic processing.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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From May 9 through August 3, the Museum of the City of New York will exhibit “In a World of Their Own: Coney Island Photographs by Aaron Rose, 1961-1963.” The photos he took of casual, serendipitous beach-goers were some of the first to be printed on C-print paper using chromogenic processing. These artistic twists are what bathe the shots in rosy tans and give them their vintage feel. Rose opted to use these techniques because he thought it brought out the summer skin tones of his subjects.

Photography critic Vince Aletti wrote of the series, “The work’s easy rapport and its casual erotic charge are thrilling and touchingly sweet.” This 70-image series captures the essence of life in the baking heat of the '60s summers: people of all races, ethnicities, and walks of life can be seen mingling and splashing about.

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[via Juxtapoz]

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