gabriel biderman ~ fine art photography

My first visits to Coney Island were probably when I was around 11 years old. I would go with my dad and visit my relatives who lived in Brighton Beach. Since I moved to Brooklyn in 2001, I’ve been taking the F line to Coney Island every year. The summers are hot and crowded but not as much as the WeeGee heydays of the 1940′s when you couldn’t even see the sand on the beach because there was so many people there.

Nostalgia reigns supreme these days at Coney though Keyspan Park, the beautiful AAA ballpark of the Mets, is driving more people to the southernmost tip of Brooklyn.

Here are two pictures that I took 6 years apart of two Coney Men. The benches have changed and maybe the men have gained a little weight, but the classic planks of the boardwalk remain and lead you along your personal Coney Island of the mind.

Phew! Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I went on a film binge and am just catching up on the developing process! Yes, my point and shoot Digital Ricoh GRD is in the shop for the 2nd time in it’s 1 1/2 year lifespan and I am giving the Nikon D2x a breather. The pinhole picture a day assignment that I gave myself in April got me back into film again, big time. Also, the recent acquisition of the legendary Oscar Cazobonnet Mamiya 7 medium format rangefinder camera has been inspiration in getting back to the basic of photography. In fact I am working on a modern classic review of that camera – stay tuned!

The photo of the week last week was a , eh, portrait of a Mr. Jonny Lane doing his best Tom Waits impression. About 17 years ago some mutual friends of ours told us that we would be the best of friends… it took us a year to finally meet and I haven’t been able to shake him since!

Jonny and I instituted “film nights” every week in college where we would get together and make artsy (read: now silly) little films. Jonny is also responsible for teaching me photography, especially the darkroom skills. After college we lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment (4-5 people lived there) in Lower Haight Street, San Francisco. We put a darkroom in the closet and that was it for me. Jonny hiked and I stayed in the closet! In 2006 we both got married a month apart to beautiful women who truly complement who we are. I was in Seattle last week on business and purposely stayed an extra day so that I could get my Jonny and Maria time in. It turns out that after spending the last 6-8 months caretaking Goldmeyer Hot Springs (about 1 1/2 hours north of Seattle via a 18 mile dirt road that takes at least an hour to drive in 4wd!) they have come out of the woods and moved to Bellingham, Washington. It is here in Bellingham that Jonny and Maria have formed their own business, Dandelion Organic Delivery. Right now they’re just delivering organic food to Bellingham folks but rumors are spreading about adding San Francisco. Way before they became “Dandelions” Jonny and Maria hiked the Pacific Crest Trail with a group called the Menacing Vegetables and their amazing 2000-mile journey from the border of California/Mexico to Washington can be found here: pct2000

Keep on with the good, creative times.

Which baby do you like?

This is my little nephew, Ollie. I took these pictures on a recent trip to San Francisco. It was a week before his 1st Birthday and we had some serious guy bonding to catch up on. Lucky for me, Ollie likes cameras. He was very intrigued, as most people are, when I put the Lensbaby 3G on my Nikon D2Xs camera and moved in close. For those of you not familiar with what a Lensbaby is and does, it is pretty simple. A Lensbaby is a specialized lens that you can buy for any SLR camera, cameras that have interchangeable lenses, and it creates a sweet spot while defocusing the surrounding area. Lenbabies can add a very dreamlike quality to your images, and can be very addictive, as they open new doors of creativity…new ways of seeing. As a photographer, I can definitely appreciate that.

So my question to you readers is which picture do you like best:
Ollie eyes closed? As we try to figure out his thoughts and dreams…or
Ollie eyes open? The recognition of something/someone familiar…