Jerry L. Thompson. Coney Island 1973

About

By 1973, Jerry L. Thompson was regularly taking his cumbersome 8” x 10” large format camera and a bag full of film down to Coney Island. He captured proto-hip-hop teenagers, hippies, fun-fair workers, young couples in love, and street gang members. The pictures tell a story of sub-culture. People who are a product of the unique time and place in which they find themselves.

These anonymous figures arrived to pose in front of Thompson’s lens without invitation or guidance. Each portrait is a memento of this brief encounter, a dialectic between photographer and subject.We see a momentary pause as citizens consent to be to be viewed and interpreted, communicating with their attitude, body language and customised clothing.

The results are not constructed fantasies but are inextricably linked to the real world. Thompson believes that “photography can achieve this in a way that no other medium can.”

Thompson’s instinctive approach to street photography is surely indebted to legendary photographer Walker Evans. Thompson was his assistant for the last three years of Evan’s life (from 1973–75). The deep, rich tonal quality of the Coney Island prints, a likely product of this apprentice, which occurred during their creation.