Triggered: James Prochnik
Bambi The Mermaid © James Prochnik
Image and Text by James Prochnik
It was a perfect day to spend at Coney Island. But this was not just any summer beach day. This was Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade, an annual celebration when hundreds of mermaids, mermen, and merthem, along with other assorted and diverse marine life ascend from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to crowd the beaches and streets of Coney Island, Brooklyn, and mix and mingle with hundreds of thousands of their human fans and admirers - especially photographers. Despite the fact I’m just one amidst so many photographers, I remain attracted to the event because it resonates so strongly with longstanding interests of mine. Specifically, expressions of creative and joyful resistance to the forces of conformity, banality, and homogeneity in the world are like an irresistible siren call to me. Bambi The Mermaid, the delightful star of this photo, with her dazzling smile, fiery orange and yellow hair, starfish pasties, and glittering and bedazzled skin and accessories was and is the perfect embodiment of the creative spirit I find so deeply inspiring and energizing. Click! Click! And out of all the fish in the sea, there was no doubt, Bambi was the one for me.
James also publishes the NYC Photo Community newsletter and runs the @nycphotocommunity instagram, resources that share information on photo events, talks, exhibitions, and news of interest to photographers everywhere. To view more of his work, click here.
