No Coney Island Iconography By Mark Hartman

When Mark Hartman turned 35 he found himself stuck in a midlife crisis. To counter the bad feelings he spontaneously decided to take the train to Coney Island, Brooklyn. In his portrait series “Island“ Hartman’s main goal was to connect on a deeper level with people he met on the streets. Through this approach he tried to find a little bit of his own story and hidden feelings too. After his photography trip to Coney Island in August 2016 he has walked the same way almost every day. The photographer finds most of his subjects at the beach and via Instagram, where he publishes his photos on a regular basis. What’s striking is that the pictures in Hartman’s “ Island“ series don’t show Coney Island at all. Not a single picture presents the iconic sites of the island close to New York City. The images could have been taken anywhere else. Instead the focus lies on the depicted people who are all quite different from each other but show a part of their soul on every photo. Hartman captures the wide range of human emotions and illustrates it with a high degree of authenticity.

All images © Mark Hartman