Interesting Color Photographs Document Everyday Life in Coney Island in the Early 1960s

When Aaron Rose began photographing Coney Island in 1961, he bypassed the bluster of the theme parks and sideshows for the more intimate interactions of beach dwellers. Wielding his camera surreptitiously, observing as if from a neighboring blanket, Rose documented a “sun-baked melting pot” of beachgoers of all ages, ethnicities, and walks of life, each one utterly unselfconscious, absorbed in a world of his or her own.

(All images by Aaron Rose, courtesy The Museum of the City of New York)