Harald Claessen
Connect/Reconnect
Suddenly and unexpectedly, my untroubled life, formerly defined by nonchalance and filled with love, was overwhelmed by fear, anger and despair. After this assault, I didn’t know if I could ever recover my former peace. My earlier sense of harmony and wellbeing seemed beyond reach.
Even after the immediate and serious threat to my family was resolved, my wounds were fresh and deep.
These photographs reflect an escape—my effort to open my heart again to trust and joy.
Coney Island provided a ready escape from the frenzied streets of Brooklyn. The force and power of the ocean helped me, and other visitors, to distance ourselves from the burdens of our daily lives. Coney Island provided a space for us to let down our guard.
I wanted my soul to connect with other souls, so I could once again celebrate the beauty of the day and let myself become whole once again.
Bio
Harald is a Dutch photographer who lives and travels between Cyprus and Russia. Once fulfilled in his business life, at the age of 42, he decided to focus entirely on his passion for photography that he cherished from early childhood. Previous life gave him an insightful privilege of experiencing the daily life of ordinary people in more than 35 countries around the world where he travelled to and lived in. The variety and peculiarities of cultures, backgrounds, environments and similarity of emotions in all of them is what he always wanted to share through photography. “I look at my surroundings with sincerity of a child who doesn’t wish to break into someone’s intimate moment but rather be embraced by it. It’s like capturing frames of a life long movie, the frames that beat along with my heart. Every picture of mine has a piece of my soul in it. That’s why I do it, it’s my way of absorbing this world with all its beauty and flaws and give back a part of myself.”
Wow, the pic of the woman in braids laying on top of Mr. Robot is fantastic. Congrats.
And I’m sorry for whatever tragedy that befell you, and if Coney Island Beach helped you overcome, I think that’s great.
Otherwise, I think this essay shows some of the difficulty and pitfalls of doing a hit-and-run personal story on Coney Island Beach. I don’t see that the photos show much of a connection with other souls; quite the contrary, they seem to show distance from the people depicted. I think for these photos to work in the manner you describe, they would need captions that speak to the connection you made. Otherwise, theres a danger that the people come off as little more than colorful props in someone else’s internal monologue. For example, the annual Tribute to the Ancestors of the Middle Passage event is a very emotional, meaningful event. It is all about connecting to other souls, but the un-captioned photo says nothing whatsoever about it (and it’s problematic compositionally as well). I trust you really connected with what took place that night, and with the people you photographed during your time at Coney Island Beach in general, but I think you need to find a way to better communicate it. Though I like many of the photographs individually, the essay, imo, doesn’t quite accomplish what you describe in the intro.
Still, I always like looking at pictures of Coney Island and these are way better than most.
Personally, I would call “Mr. Robot” “Mr. Lucky.” But then Michael knows his way around Coney Island and perhaps Mr Lucky’s name is really Mr Robot, in which case Michael is certainly correct – but then so am I.
Of all photo spreads I’ve ever seen on Coney Island it is Michael’s that stands out most in my memory, because it was so very different, done completely at night and showed a Coney Island I had never seen or imagined and it contained some extraordinary images.
The images in this spread are more along ordinary lines – but I like them. Well done. I hope whatever comfort you found lasts awhile. Congratulations, Harald Claessen. Well done – and please keep shooting.
Mr. Robot is a television series featuring the actor Rami Malek, who looks something like the guy in that picture. Much of the show is spot in Coney Island, the hackers’ secret lair is inside the El Dorado arcade, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that that could actually be Malek in the photo.
It’s not at all unusual for commenters to think that a written intro to an essay doesn’t entirely jibe with its content. I get the impression that most photographers care 99.999 percent about the actual photographs, while the essay is more like being made to wash the dishes when you were 14 by clueless old mom. Not sure how it is for the typical consumer? Do normal people even care about an intro? This essay has, imo, two exceptionally good photos (Mr. Robot and the top one with the guy doing a flip off the boardwalk). That, alone, is quite an accomplishment. But for the essay in its entirety to work as the essay described in the intro, I still think the text needs some work.
Well, you can see how culturally illiterate I am when it comes to today’s TV shows. One day I must watch this show and see if I can spot Mr Lucky Robot. In general, not limited to this piece, I agree with you about text.
sublime….
have seen A LOT of work on Conney Island (maybe i’m the only photographer who has spent a lot of time there, as a kid and adult, to NOT want to shoot there because of the historical weight/icongraphy that comes w/shooting that beach/boardwalk/people) and spent a lot of time there…and gotta say that some of these pics are really powerful stand outs……i’d put one or two up with DAH’s Rio beaches :)…
agree that to fully broaden and deepen the ‘story’, one needs to get deeper and show different aspects of CI and her folk…..and that takes time and trust…
all that aside, some terrific images here and that says alot for the photographer….
carry on :)