Barry Yanowitz

Barry Yanowitz grew up in Coney Island where he could see the Cyclone and hear the screams of riders from his window. "The Cyclone was it," he recalls. "The secret thing that me and friends of mine had who lived in the area that I felt like the rest of the country didn't know about because they were used to the standard amusement parks that had the same rides." In the early 2000's, Yanowitz's interest in history drew him to photography as a way to document the changes he saw in Coney Island and the rest of New York City. Today he lives in Dumbo and frequently returns to Coney to visit family and shoot photos. He has taken thousands of photographs from which he typically selects just a few to tell a story. "If you come to Coney Island in winter, you see Brooklyn," he says. "If you come in summer you see the world." You can view an album of Barry Yanowitz's Coney Island photos here.