Just at the edge of the summer heat radiating from the concrete and steel of New York City there is a beach club cabana culture; something you would think existed during the 1950’s in Miami Beach. The cabanas in which people rent each summer, year after year, generation after generation, create a seasonal community, a home-away-from-home from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
This subculture is a mixture of working class New Yorkers, teachers, firemen, doctors, city workers. Each beach club has its own personality. And although they might be barely forty minutes from downtown Manhattan, longstanding members claim that their beach club is the city’s “best kept secret.” The clubs are made up of personalized, decorated cabanas—including refrigerators, showers, changing rooms—that members rent for the season only, but have the opportunity to return to year after year. For the die-hard cabana lover, there are endless ways to customize their summer space: ceiling fans, mini bars, sinks, cable TV & internet access, microwaves, hot plates and plenty of beach inspired knick-knacks. It is a vibrant world seemingly frozen in time, where families have retreated over and over again for more than forty years; each family raising their children, then those children raising their own, passing on this nostalgic summer tradition.
“Doc” Leonard& Beverly Kane.
Members for 30 years
"Our first Cabana was in D court, we use to be next to Chuck Schumer and his wife. We love our Cabana it is our home away from home.
The best part: the beach is gorgeous and lovely especially early in the morning when it is quiet. I feel the freedom here."
- Beverly Kane
Fernanda Chemtop
Member 18 years
"I first belonged to the Brighton Beach Bath joined that club in 1985. In 1997 that club closed and then we found Silver Gull, joining in 1998. We brought over 50 people from that club, convincing them (Silver Gull) to build paddleball courts, which they did. We usually arrive at 10 am and leave when the club closes 11pm.
It is a different world. It is the best place to raise a family ( kids) I have ten grand kids now. They are in the sun, playing, they are free, they come and go as they please, eating lunch and dinner.
It is a home away from home."
-Fernanda Chemtop
Nancy Berson, daughters Kayla and Alexa
Member: 4 years
"We had been members at SeaGate beach club and after hurricane Sandy they were slow to rebuild. I went to visit Silvergull and even seeing it in a destroyed state I fell in love and on the spot joined.
Silver gull is my happy spot and I've created a home like environment in our 8x14 cabana.
I absolutely love the views and sounds of the ocean, the ultimate healer in every way.
I also love that my 2 little city dwellers can enjoy independence and creative play outdoors. They've built club houses on the beach and have made forever friends."
-Nancy Berson
“Scars & Stripes: American Roller Derby” is an inquiry into social class, subculture, and counterculture. What motivates people to form individual identities and groups outside of widely accepted social norms? It seeks to capture the entrepreneurial spirit that brings modern roller derby alive; the extraordinary bonds that are created among the participants, the invigorating and infectious fanaticism, the exploitation of sexual stereotypes, and our cultural fascination with extreme sports. Ultimately the project is about passion: passion for community, and for participating in bold activities; and how such passion finds a place in our everyday lives.
While this unique American-born sport has its roots in sports entertainment, modern derby is committed to “facilitating the development of athletic ability, sportsmanship, and goodwill among member leagues” with leagues governed “by the skaters, for the skaters”—the primary owners, managers, and operators of each member league of associations such as the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) and Men’s Roller Derby Association (MRDA) are the skaters themselves.
In part because of its non-discriminatory nature, roller derby is currently the fastest growing sport in America, quickly moving from obscure sub-culture to mainstream pastime with more than 750 teams in the United States, and more than 1,300 worldwide. While the modern version initially featured only all-female leagues; they now include an increasing number of male, co-ed, and junior leagues, all sharing a strong “do it yourself” (DIY) ethic which uniquely combines athleticism and elements from punk, camp, and third-wave feminist aesthetics.
The DIY spirit that drives the sport allows roller derby leagues to create their own unique identities and adapt their structures to reflect their local communities. It attracts women and men from small towns and large cities alike, housewives and working professionals, and bridges socio-economic classes.
Women in football was a natural offshoot of my long time interest in the duality of women participating in sports, jobs and activities that go against stereotypical views of what a woman should do or be. There are many sports that women are expected or encouraged to play, but many of the more physical contact sports that men easily inhabit are often not seen as “acceptable” for women. Sports such as roller derby and football are as much a societal as an athletic rebellion and revolution.
The spectrum between women involved in traditional gridiron football and the more scantily-clad adapted version, also gave me the opportunity to examine a sport that rather dramatically desexualizes women as much as the other sport dramatically sexualizes them—an aesthetic and mental difference that is no small source of friction between the two sports, particularly as they often compete to attract the same players. What I quickly learned, and that any acute observer can see is that both sports are for aggressive athletes who train and strive to compete at the highest athletic levels.
Women in football was a natural offshoot of my long time interest in the duality of women participating in sports, jobs and activities that go against stereotypical views of what a woman should do or be. There are many sports that women are expected or encouraged to play, but many of the more physical contact sports that men easily inhabit are often not seen as “acceptable” for women. Sports such as roller derby and football are as much a societal as an athletic rebellion and revolution.
The spectrum between women involved in traditional gridiron football and the more scantily-clad adapted version, also gave me the opportunity to examine a sport that rather dramatically desexualizes women as much as the other sport dramatically sexualizes them—an aesthetic and mental difference that is no small source of friction between the two sports, particularly as they often compete to attract the same players. What I quickly learned, and that any acute observer can see is that both sports are for aggressive athletes who train and strive to compete at the highest athletic levels.
IMAGES COMING SOON!
I have been using the collodion process to photograph public and private naturalist communities throughout the mid-Atlantic region, particularly focusing on communities from West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. My life’s work has always returned to the subject of “community” and I have particularly sought to study communities that people form outside of societal norms. Marrying my study of naturalist communities with the collodion process is born of my appreciation that bodies are not perfect, each body has beauty in its imperfections. Similarly, the collodion process is not perfect, and each wet plate holds artistic beauty in its imperfections. Collodion process nudes in natural settings also are unanchored by any sense of time or era, and so take on a timelessness that allows the viewer to come closer to the imperfection and beauty of each subject as well as the imperfection and beauty of each wet plate.
