New Yorkers in a world of their own.

• Position: USA Yesterday

"IN A WORLD OF THEIR OWN: Coney Island Photographs by Aaron Rose, 1961-1963" is the first exhibition of the photographer's images of sunbathers and swimmers on New York's most famous beach. The diversity of people--and what they are doing--is immediately arresting, as the images capture intimate portraits of regular and uninhibited New Yorkers in a world of their own. Featuring 70 previously undisplayed photographs, the exhibition includes one section showcasing individuals and couples and another featuring the crowded beach and onlookers on the Coney Island boardwalk.

Paul Goldberger--the Pulitzer Prize-winner who used to write for The New Yorker and now is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair--once compared Aaron Rose's work to "Emily Dickenson's poems inside her trunk in Amherst, a trove of art as yet unseen by the public."

"World" represents an utterly different perspective on New Yorkers' lives, made up entirely of photographs of beach-goers, escaping what were, in all likelihood, unairconditioned apartments for a few hours of sand and waves. Coney Island, according to photography critic Vince Aletti, is "a place where privacy is a state of mind."

Adds Susan Henshaw Jones, director of the Museum of the City of New York, which 12 years ago also displayed another Rose exhibit, "The Last Days of Penn Station":

"'In a World of Their Own' shows New A Yorkers in an unusually carefree environment, pushing the bounds of privacy. Rose's photographs capture the vibrant and diverse mix of races, ethnicities, genders, and body types that create the city of New York: a literal 'sun-baked melting pot.'"

As Aletti has described, Rose's Coney Island photographs are remarkably intimate portraits of people relaxing as if in the privacy of their own homes: "Roaming the Coney Island beach, Rose was careful not to burst that bubble. Always moving, holding his camera at his side, and looking anywhere but at his subjects, he was able to catch people at ease and unaware, often at close range."

Rose was born in New York in or about 1940. Orphaned at an early age, he was raised in foster homes, and has lived in the city for his entire life. For more than 60 years, he has explored not just the city, but also the basic elements of photography, light, and chemistry to create a unique style of visual imagery. Rose already had produced more than 25,000 photographs--each work printed only once-when he was discovered by the art world in the 1990s. These photographs...