Coney Island Bin Laden

Coney Island shooting gallery target, 2004

Reflecting on the 9/11 attacks, six years later, can seem masochistic or manipulative. It’s perhaps more interesting, or more useful, to look back at our initial reactions.

In 2004, the paper targets at the Coney Island shooting gallery featured a hand-drawn Osama Bin Laden. The game operators thought I was a little crazy for wanting to buy a copy before it was shot up, but I had to have it. I don’t want to crush it by analyzing it, or demean it by calling it “folk art.” It’s pure image-making: from the gut and very Brooklyn. I wonder if the booth lost money that season from a jump in target-shooting accuracy?