Coney Island Beach, 4 p.m., July 21, 1940, Weegee

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Summer gatherings are marked by distinctive flavors, sights, sounds, and smells. We lug our lawn chairs and sunscreen all over town, listen to the whir of lawnmowers, and associate the aroma of bug spray and fireworks with the Fourth of July. Such events often include eating, and we delight in plastic dinnerware, corn on the cob, fresh watermelon, and the prospect of ordering food on a stick or funnel cake from carnival vendors. A summer party can be refined or raucous, from wedding receptions to outdoor concerts. Fairfield Porter’s July presents the quiet interactions of a few friends enjoying an afternoon in the backyard. In Weegee’s photograph of Coney Island hardly a spot of sand can even be seen as beachcomers crowd the landscape. As summer typically finds our schedules more open, our social calendars fill with family reunions, picnics, and trips to the beach or the fair.

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This picture, taken on the eve of America’s entry into the Second World War, presents a scene that would very soon be lost. Weegee took the photograph from a vantage point above the assembled multitudes at the largest public beach accessible by the New York City subway system. Weegee’s bathers turn to him, posing, waving, and smiling. They offer up the flesh of their nearly bare bodies to the camera just as they do to the sun, and the bodies offered up are at leisure, displayed in the pursuit of relaxation and pleasure.
Nineteenth-century beaches were segregated by gender, but this beach welcomes women and men, in clothing that accentuates gender differences.