Coney Island Sleepers

What Makes It Great? / Featured / February 22, 2023

By Suzanne Révy

I grew up near the ocean. I can still smell the salt and suntan oil on my skin after a summer day spent there as a teenager in the 1970’s. We slathered baby oil all over our bodies and used sun reflectors to enhance the sun’s rays on our faces. Basking lethargically in each other’s company, we managed to escape real life for a few precious hours. Seeing Karl Baden’s Coney Island Beach Sleepers, 1977 currently on view at the Anderson Yezerski Gallery through March 25th, 2023 brought the sights, smells and a certain longing for the beach rushing back to me.

FEATURE IMAGE: “Untitled (Radio Man)” by Karl Baden from the show Coney Island Sleepers, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

“Untitled (Yellow Tanning Goggles)” by Karl Baden from the show Coney Island Sleepers, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

In 1977, Karl Baden staved off the boredom of his suburban life with a visit to Coney Island, carrying a few rolls of Kodachrome film. He peered down at the sea of supine sunbathers, drawn to their paraphernalia and sweat stained towels. When Baden’s film came back from the lab, he was busy preparing to move to Chicago for graduate school, and did not take time to study these pictures. They remained in their yellow Kodak boxes for decades.

“Untitled (Red Couple)” by Karl Baden from the show Coney Island Sleepers, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

“Untitled (Plaid Hat)” by Karl Baden from the show Coney Island Sleepers, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Discovering them recently, Baden scanned the slides, including the frayed edges next to the cardboard mount, and made large-scale archival pigment prints. There is no disputing that the the rich color of Kodachrome was that decade’s photographic palette; after all, it was the subject of a chart topping pop song by Paul Simon. The richly saturated tones of Baden’s prints undeniably bring up nostalgia for a time that seemed simpler, but was in fact, unsettling. That summer, New York City was gripped with fear by the serial “Son of Sam” killings, and endured looting and mayhem during a city-wide blackout that lasted for twenty-five hours. Is it any wonder that the denizens of New York sought abandon at the beach?

“Untitled (Comics)” by Karl Baden from the show Coney Island Sleepers, courtesy of the artist and the Anderson Yezerski Gallery, Boston.

Nonetheless, it was not all doom and gloom. It was also the summer of “Star Wars,” and Kodachrome film was readily available. Like so many photographic materials, it has since been discontinued, which is a real shame. Baden’s forty-five years old pictures are a testament to the film’s stability, probably the most archival color film ever made. At first glance, Baden’s images struck me as straight forward, with a snapshot aesthetic, but his use of a bird’s eye view and tight framing complicate that interpretation. By abstracting gestures and shapes and presenting pictures upside down from their original in-camera orientation, Baden introduces dramatic tension. His vivid pictures of languid beach sleepers against the invisible backdrop of a transformational decade echo the frictions between what is private versus what is public – an issue that has grown more fraught since the “halcyon” days of 1977.