Down For the Day
The photographs in Down For the Day (2016-present) are made along a fifteen block stretch of Rockaway Beach, Queens. Less than a mile long, this section of beach is among the most utilized in New York City, hosting shoulder-to-shoulder crowds on summer weekends. The project title, Down For the Day, is the local description of day-trippers, frequently called DFDs. This term of derision often meant to distance visitors from locals, is used here to describe the tangled bodies, cramped encampments, and flimsy tropical umbrellas as attempts at finding not only respite from the city heat but perhaps a momentary paradise, imperfect but one’s own.
Down For the Day is fourth in a cycle of projects that depict the relationship between New York City, its diverse citizens, and its urban waterways. Throughout my photographic practice, I have sought to understand the contradiction between the ideal and the actual; my photographs occur in the space, both literal and metaphorical, between the two. My hope is to find Eden in the every day, to witness how we reconcile ourselves to the places and the life we live, how we find joy, beauty, and even transcendence in our immediate moment.
Body of Water
About the Artist
Susannah Ray studied photography at Princeton University and at the School of Visual Arts MFA Program in Photography and Related Media. Her recent solo exhibitions include the Works on Water/Underwater New York Residency Project Space on Governors Island, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Bonni Benrubi Gallery. Her photographs are in museum and corporate collections and have been widely featured and reviewed in publications including: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The British Journal of Photography, The Surfer’s Journal, The Independent UK, and The Wall Street Journal. Susannah Ray is an adjunct Associate Professor of Photography at Hofstra.