Jan Arrigo

Astrological Sign

On the cusp

A Favorite Quote

“Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other.” William Faulkner

Photographic Influences

Eugene Atget, Berenice Abbott, Manuel Alvarez-Bravo, Andre Kertesz, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Sylvia Plachy, Keith Carter, Hiroshi Sumitomo

Photographic Education

Introductory classes at New York’s International Center of Photography and workshops with Sylvia Plachy and Keith Carter in New Orleans

Current Reading Material

“Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry

Recent Photographic Project

Editing Coney Island in a Day

Most Interesting Assignment or Previous Occupation?

Educator, The American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York

Project Statement

I took these pictures of Coney Island one day in 1994 as an ICP class assignment (then forgot about them until recently) when I expected to find quaint scenes conjuring history but instead found a story advancing nostalgia to the present. Seemingly on the decline ever since its beginning, Coney Island has both devolved and evolved into what it is today; just like the enthusiasm for pictures of what’s instantly found.