The Terrain Gallery motto is Eli Siegel's statement: "In reality opposites are one; art shows this." I examined my work to find how my photographs reflect this statement. This is what I found.

It was obvious to me that the women in the photograph of Willies Ball Game were not tall enough and perhaps agile enough to pull themselves up and sit on the shelf in front of this concession stand. But there they were. I was not privy to how they had managed it, a question I'm asked by almost everyone who's viewed this photograph.

An inordinate amount of time had passed and the audience waiting for the parade had every right to be impatient and annoyed. What resulted was just the opposite. People found time to have discussions that they would not have had time for if the parade was on schedule. Adults and children relaxed on the stoop; one adult buying a balloon, an unexpected bonus for a waiting child to help pass the time. One woman utilized the time by carefully examining her nails. All in all I found the audience patient and quite content to relax, waiting for the passing parade.

Here I was photographing the remains of a Coney Island staple, an attraction that brought fun and excitement to tens of thousands of people over the decades. What remained was a broken structure wasting away; a sad end to the life of this once vibrant ride. And yet I found new beauty and design in its peeling paint, rusting metal, broken windows and deteriorating wood. The structure had taken on a new aesthetic, not the same as its original but resulting in a similar feeling of contentment for me the viewer.