These images were captured in the waning years of Astroland, the space-age Coney Island amusement park that operated from 1962-2008. Themed “Journey to the 21st Century” at its inception, it managed to achieve its goal, limping into its fifth decade before finally succumbing to the same silent fate as the singing and sparkling rides that preceded it on the seaside real estate.
We are here, now, in the 21st century - “The Future.” A time so advanced that our first images and ideas of where technology would lead us have decayed into little more than kitschy detritus, quaint reminders of simpler times. Our trash dumps and landfills are littered with the remains of the optimism of a time long past.
Anyone who has been to a garbage dump knows how fascinating it can be to literally wade through our recent history. In this series I tried to create new photographs that captured the weight of these literal remnants of the past: a travel guide, a fine art monograph, or a tourist’s snapshots casually disposed then finely aged by the passage of time. We tend to honor photographs with scars. These images possess a gravitas that eclipses the weight of their original message.
Also, we as a society simply love this crap. Acres of prints and zettabytes of files document our obsession with the decaying remnants of postwar America. But one day, in the next future, the 22nd or 23rd century, this mass of documentation will be long since discarded. The 21st century will be joined by its kid brother in the junkyard stratigraphy of our past whims.