Photography: 37th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade 6/22/19

Photography: 37th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade 6/22/19

The Mermaid Parade was founded back in 1983 with three goals — bring mythology to life for Coney Island residents, who live on, walk and play on streets named Mermaid, Neptune and Surf; to create and promote self-esteem for a section of New York that has long been regarded at various points as seedy or just for entertainment; and lastly, as a platform for creative and artistic minded New Yorkers to express themselves in whatever way they find fit — and in public. Unlike most parades, The Mermaid Parade has no ethnic, religious or commercial aims — it’s a New York holiday, invented by artists to celebrate art, the sea and summer.

Since its fairly humble origins, the Mermaid Parade, which celebrates the seaside and the summer, features over 3,000 creatives and artists from across the city’s five boroughs and elsewhere, marching bands, and the like marching and performing in front of over one million New Yorkers.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site throughout the course of its history, it’s annual tradition that I make the trip down to Coney Island to take pictures of gorgeous people in a variety of incredibly creative costumes. And as a New Yorker and a photographer, it’s a fantastic day — countless beautiful people, most of whom are willing to pose for you in front of timeless and gorgeous backdrop. Give me more of that, please! Check out photos below.