Surf Avenue, Coney Island

Surf Avenue, Coney Island

While this photograph was taken at some point between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915, after the rising prevalence of the car, it bears testament to the role that avenues alongside the hotels and beach played. In likening this image to the worlds fairs of previous weeks' readings (and decades prior to this photograph), it is possible to detect similarities in the construction of Surf Avenue and the Midway of an Exposition. The fusion of the public aspect of a road, coupled with the spectacle of the commercial (including advertisements and consumptive behaviors) suggests a similar spectacle to the Midway at a Fair. This similarity is finite, however, as we know that the cultural and potentially historically/anthropologically significant elements of a Midway are absent along the Avenue. While Ocean Parkway is likened to "The Champs Elysées," it is also true that the Elysées lacked in this "academic" exhibition.

Notes:
Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards.
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3351766876/in/photolist-4i7w3e-4ibCwW-dcL6Q1-67bFzU-67bFw5-ovUWJQ-oePpv8-ouNUoA-w9Nn3z-wNSFcE-wNVL5Q-x75UFk-wP6HQa-owp4L7-oun7Gf-ovFBoi-wP4nmD-w9FtDe-w9Lr5g-wP2R71/

1910-1915