I will always fall short when trying to explain my love of Coney Island. But to put it simply, in this place I revert to a childlike wonder and joy akin to those experiences that change you inside. I was born and raised in the Caribbean and in this sense, warm weather and the ocean feel like a coming home. But I also have a profound love for urban environments, especially New York City, where I discovered who I am, the place where I came of age. Coney Island harmoniously embodies both these aspects of my roots, and walking its crowded and picturesque sandy shores peppered with people from all walks of life, I feel no need to choose.
 
My son basking in the sun under the greenish water, the vanilla ice cream we always share afterwards, Nathan’s onion rings, walking until we are under the boardwalk and can sing the song to play it tribute. Observing people seeking respite at summertime, being inspired by their grandeur, their loudness, their fading tattoos. To be lost in the moment and to become fully present. To experience a place with no urgency for refinement or cleanliness and that is yet so strikingly beautiful. To be in awe but never overwhelmed…these are the gifts Coney Island keeps on bearing.

Coney Island

Self Portraits

There are no shortcuts to facing our darkness but delving into the well. This series uses the natural elements of light and water, in stark contrast with the urban landscape, to offer a different perspective about the nature of human beings. Through dissociation with expected viewpoints and previous images of ourselves is that we arrive at the authentic self.


Down Under

In Spanish, Umbral means gateway, a portal, the first step towards something. As I witness my son’s childhood, I often see him in that in-between space, drifting in and out of reality and the places I have imagined for him. Becoming a single mother at a young age proved frightening to me, and not for the obvious reasons. I felt a huge responsibility to create a nurturing childhood for him, different from the dysfunctional one I had lived. With these images I wanted to intervene, to somehow create a magical space that could lessen his generational baggage. With this project I aim to explore both my fantasies of what childhood should be and the freedom my son needs to live his own reality.

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Erika Morillo

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