City to Sea: Coney Island, 2016 - 2018

City to Sea returned to Coney Island, NY in September 2016 to begin a new two-year project working with community residents associated with Coney Island Gospel Assembly, a local hub for the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort in the area. Participants have been using photography to tell stories exploring life in Coney Island from amusement rides to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Sandy, the environment and communities living in the neighborhood.

The visual research explored the area through walking and beachcombing, utilizing these methods to investigate environmental relationships between city and sea. In addition, peer-research and reviews were conducted, followed by image mapping and storytelling exercises. The project has culminating in a group exhibition of work made by participants inspired by their community, coastline and the culture of New York City. The show will take place in New York in 2018 with the aim of being screened at the Urban Encounters Conference, at Tate Britain, London 2019.

View photo gallery here

City to Sea: Coney Island Workshops, 2015

The Coney Island: City to Sea Workshop took place in September 2015. The three-day event was hosted by the Coney Island Gospel Assembly a center for Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

* The intensive program was led by City to Sea, with mentoring from 6 leading photography professionals from the USA, Canada, Russia, Spain, and United Kingdom. Participants learned and enhanced photographic storytelling techniques and developed editorial documentary photographic assignments / projects
* Work made during the workshop to be included in the City to Sea screened exhibition at Tate Britain, London during Urban Encounters, part of London's Urban Photo Fest.

About
City to Sea workshops are inspired by Goldsmiths’ 2011 international symposium ‘City to Sea’ that brought together artists, photographers, architects and sociologists in London, UK to present and develop visual projects and urban research exploring how coastal regeneration and planning, tourism, migration, memory, visual archives, architectural heritage and culture can transform social perceptions and geographical links between cities and coastal regions worldwide. Following on from the success of the symposium, and the 'Magnum City to Sea' workshop in Bognor Regis, UK. City to Sea's Rebecca Locke and David Kendall led an intensive three-day workshop at the seaside resort of Coney Island in New York City, USA on 2015 and return with Konstantin Sergeyev in 2016 to work with local people at Coney Island Gospel Assembly. The practitioners will assist participants with the production of new exploratory projects, identify photographic narratives and investigate aesthetic and ethical considerations that surround urban photography practice. Candidates will learn and enhance photo storytelling skills, receive creative mentoring and instruction in editorial photography, and will take part in a program of shooting, reviewing, and editing their photographic stories produced in Coney Island.

The City to Sea Project
Since 2010 Rebecca Locke and David Kendall have developed educational and cultural workshops, research, exhibitions and events within the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. They are group members of the Urban Photographers’ Association. Their curatorial activities at Goldsmiths’ include the ‘City to Sea’ symposium and workshops, ‘Photography and the Practice of Walking’ symposium and ‘a here and a there’ exhibition. Locke and Kendall have coordinated a number of events at ‘Urban Photo Fest’ including a City to Sea screening, talk and project presentation at Urban Encounters, Tate Britain, London. In addition, they have 10 years experience teaching and training undergraduate / postgraduate students, academic researchers and creative professionals. Furthermore, they have designed and facilitated arts education outreach programs with young people and adults in New York City, Paris and London. Students have gained places on undergraduate photography, art and digital design courses at art-design colleges and universities including Parsons The New School for Design, Tisch / New York University (NYU), Cornell University, LCC and Central St Martins, University of the Arts London. These projects investigate how visual communication, digital storytelling, self-advocacy and journalism could be utilized to discover, create and question spatial and social awareness of homelessness, sensory disability, housing and health in cities. Collaborative projects combine photography with sensory techniques such as sound, touch and smell to ‘map’ urban, geographical and architectural environments.
www.citytosea.org
www.rebeccalocke.com
www.david-kendall.co.uk

Coney Island

Coney Island
City to Sea 2016

Coney Island

Coney Island
City to Sea 2016

Coney Island

Coney Island
City to Sea 2016

Coney Island

Coney Island
Michael Migdal 2016

Coney Island

Coney Island
Tina Jones 2016