What you’re looking at here is some photos I took from 1978 till 85 there’s two I didn’t take Lisa with Johnny Carson and of course my portrait that Sal took of me above Captain Tony saloon in his mask photography studio in 1976 we all had a hell of a time back then in Key West Lisa and I were living together for two years back then after each of us living three lifetimes somewhere else and not seeing each other for 37 years we are married now, writing this crazy book jointly Key West the way it was We have some pretty wild stories with incredible photo back up enjoy these 250 images with stories on this category on this site

After my seven years of adventures in Key West The 70s through the early 80s Photographing I took off to New York City to spend the next 30 years covering everything from A-to-Z the true people of the streets the evil wicked nightlife all the strip clubs in New York and New Jersey for three Magazines opened up a bunch of studios even published a bunch of posters and postcards for the Jersey shore it was a hell of a run as you will see an all my different websites I moved to many sections of New York City to cover The atmosphere in that area the last three years before I move back to Florida 2013 I moved to Coney Island Had a blast there took a bunch of masks set up a little studio did a lot of portfolios under that pier and photographed the wild people of Coney Island check out my two sites topnewyork.com and go to the category Coney Island days on my main website portraitsofnewyork.com

Are usually don’t put any of my advertisements on this section of this website this is considered the family pictures only but this is one of Sal‘s original ads from 1931 when he was doing his mind reading act in Chicago at the Otis Beard tunnel and Peacock lounge that was operated by Frank Costello who was coincidently Sal‘s father my great grandfather‘s cousin from Sicily that’s right we are not Terracina‘s We are Costellos and by the way Don’t stare into Sal’s eyes too long he might tell you things you don’t wanna know about

On this category on this website you will see over 500 published photos with some pretty wild stories three photographers covering over 90 years of imagery Sa,l Tony, and Keith Terracina It’s a comedic look at a sexually driven a mob family right out of New Jersey Manhattan and Key West

In the late 70s and early 80s we live together on that crazy island called Key West had a wild crazy love affair split a part never did see each other for 37 years hooked up on Facebook talked about those wild times within four months we got married and started writing a book together key west the way it was that was four years ago it’s never too late to live happily ever after

The Sal Terracina collection consists of thousands of original negatives glass slides and the original prints As far back as the late 20s I have been editing and printing these images for the last 20 years 10 years ago I recently got possession my my grandfathers collection a mixture of his work and Sals my grandfather is Sal‘s little brother the famous Captain Tony from Key West you know the X New Jersey mob guy famous fisherman smuggler out of Key West and eventually became mayor of that wacky Island he was a hell of a photographer he pretty much documented his life like Sal did and myself between all three of us and all our images I’ll be editing for another 20 years it’s not the images it’s the stories that go with them this is just a sample of what is on this site some original negatives an prints From the 30s through the 70s

In 1983 I started spending a lot of time in Times Square, Photographing all the activities and the evil wicked late life this is one of the professional pick pocket guys on the right I saw him in action a bunch of times he had two partners if you go to my image library you will see 65,000 images of people I took in New York City and a 30 your. Those images are edited out of 300,000 pretty cool stuff mia5.com

Simonton Street sunset 1978 a nor’easter was coming in It was 83° a drop to 63° in about an hour winter time

I was very lucky to get into a gallery that was showing a lot of original Batman prints no photos allowed until the end I don’t like posed Photos I wanted to catch a candid knowing I would probably get thrown out which happened many times to me back in the day I was one of those asshole paparazzi guys But since this was one of my favorite TV shows in the 60s as a kid I had to take a shot and the wild thing is I am severely colorblind when that show switched over the color from black or white on TV it did something hypnotizing to me anyway I took this photo with my small camera and got caught also Thrown out

This was the day our 65 masks arrived from New York tour a house here in Florida they’ve been in storage for six years before that I had them in my studios for 12 years these three right here were created by my great uncle Sal in the mid-30s there over 80 years old and as far as special powers they got them they were used in his mind reading eggs and photography Studios what makes them unique is the ingredients in the papier-mâché mix pyramid scrapings from Egypt, Haitian voodoo dust, Cambodian opium, And secret potions from around the world we have a really cool mask room here but these three are separated throughout the house don’t stare at them too long they could really fuck with you if you deserve it

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