As one of America’s first seaside resorts, Coney Island has attracted both visitors and photographers since the mid-19th century. Many artists, like Arthur Fellig, known as Weegee, depicted Coney Island not only as a place but also as a raucous symbol of American pastime. Weegee’s longtime assistant recalled that to make this photograph, Weegee climbed onto a lifeguard station and screamed and danced until the crowd looked his way. The resulting photograph of packed beach-goers each jostling for position and posing for the camera captures the energy of the place—a teetering, tumbling “circus of the soul,” as poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti called it.