AJ BERNSTEIN
be inspired
ARTIST'S STATEMENT //
Raised in Sheepshead Bay long before Brooklyn was hip, I made my escape - college in Boston, then off to pursue the life of a freelance photographer, first in Manhattan and then in Los Angeles. I shot environmental portraits for national and international magazines and corporations, including Money, Forbes, NY Times Magazine, People, Sport Diver, IBM, Philip Morris and many more. But wanderlust won out, and with credit cards, cameras and scuba gear in tow I traveled the world alone, writing and shooting quirky adventure stories.
Then I took a long, unintended hiatus from my cameras.
A few years ago, forces brought me back to Brooklyn. I rediscovered Coney Island, the happy place of childhood, of riding the Cyclone, hot dogs and frogs legs at Nathan's, the freak show on the boardwalk. What began as casual iPhone photos turned into a winter with the Polar Bears, spring shooting the Mermaid Parade, and summer with the last of the genuine eccentrics in Coney Island’s strange confluence of urban life and the sea.