This was one of my front page photos in the Key West Citizen newspaper and high times magazine, it was the largest drug seizure in South Florida at that time March 27 1980 two hundred tons of panama red as we called it the wicked weed before they made that bust out at sea there was tons of it thrown overboard anybody who had a boat that week had a bale or two so here’s the funny part about this photo and what happened after unloading the giant cargo ship with the 20 prisoners from Munro County Jail, they had a major police escort out of Key West with five tractor trailers to bring the weed to the burning facility five trucks leave with sheriffs and local police escort four tractor trailers show up at the burning facility they lost one only one road out of Key West I was at the newspaper with the managing editor Roger Bartel when we got to call they asked to play the story down ha ha Key west the way it was

Being in New York City all those years I took thousands of cabs to so many different locations, as far as traveling underground in subways I’ve probably been on 10,000 different trips I knew how to get around underground like a mole I can get anywhere at any time. What I loved about the subway is I could drop in on a lot of different conversations and just listen and if I think I can get away with it take a photo, This was a classic I heard the mother speaking to her son, she is a snake I don’t trust her she is going to take all your money and hurt you please get away from her, I could read his mind and see what’s going through his head but mommy she touches me in that special part that you told me not to touch

My great uncle Sal had hundreds of promo portraits taken of him as far back as 1928 when he was 17, he was booked as the worlds youngest mind reader and hypnotist while he played the piano quite a gifted young man this was a self portrait he did of himself in 1933 when he worked for Frank Costello at the Peacock lounge and Otis beer tunnel in Chicago Sal was 22 years old What’s very unique about this image is he was trying to read his old mind and hypnotize himself he wanted to see his future crazy stuff

After 30 years of photographing on the streets Of New York covering hundreds and hundreds of parties an soirées and thousands of people on the street I decided to shoot down to Florida and marry the love of my life Lisa this was my last week in the big city I just turned 60 and I was ready for phase 3 of my life can’t believe I made it that far I have been in Florida for years now I’ve definitely learned it’s never too late to live happily ever after

Where do I start my grandfather Captain Tony earned his name for a lot of reasons, this was his fourth boat it was 65 feet long had two custom giant turbo engines in it, He drove the boat through the waves like it was the PT 109, back then and still today they were called these type of boats party boats my grandfather went past that , He had a bartender that made the best mixed rum drinks in the Florida Keys lunches on the boat were amazing and he knew all the great spots to catch fish and after all that he had a bus waiting for you at the dock to bring you to his bar, card games upstairs some very sexy women hanging at the bar the ultimate man’s Key West fishing trip, sometime he would do two trips a day Do you see his face painted on side of the boat he also had it on his car and bar, He was the first bar owner in Key West to have his own T-shirts rolling papers girls panties, he was a wild Italian guy right out of Elizabeth New Jersey I started working for him in the mid 70s through the early 80s in education of a lifetime I miss that old pirate

In 1979 lisa and I were living together in Key West we were the known young wild couple back then, she was 17 and I was 23 We were out partying all night till sunrise so I said let’s go to breakfast get some champagne and orange juice drive up to Keys to big Coppitt Road, didn’t forget your white bikini and I’ll bring a gram of this amazing Peruvian flake and that’s how it was back then Over 40 years ago

After spending 30 years in New York I decided to spend the last two years before moving back to Florida in Coney Island I rented a second floor close to the beach and put a little studio up there took a bunch of masks with me photographed a lot of characters on the beach and boardwalk and did some pretty cool portfolios under the pier an on the beach Check out my website Topnewyork.com

Anybody who follows me on Facebook or any of my sites knows I have the largest collection of people of New York City, I spent 30 years there, just one of my websites has 65,000 different people on it that I edited at a quarter of 1 million, I still have 200,000 digital images with me here in Florida that I didn’t edit yet, this image right here is a girl that walked by my store on canal street three or four times a day for years I spent seven years in this location we never spoke but she never minded I took photos of her sometimes she would make a cute smile or a sexy smile or just not look she was one of those girls Thats been in New York for a long time I know that look check out my digital library mia5.com

If you go to one of my other websites portraitsofnewyork.com You will see another whole world of my photography there is 8 different categories on that site, This Image right here goes under the category, in and out, It’s a documentary on pretty much the wildest Gay sports club in Queens New York The music box 74th and Roosevelt Avenue I actually rented an apartment around the corner from this place to do a documentary on it, The owner gave me permission as long as I put all the wildness on the website I became best friends with him and his brother which man open bar for me, I spent two years there it wasn’t just that bar that was wild it was the four block radius of all the different types of prostitution that went on inside the bar was crazy as hell they always had really hot guys dancing on the bar female impersonator and transvestites everywhere and all the straight girl go go dancers would come in to tip the male dancers then you have lesbians looking for those girls there were limousines pulling up to the bar all night till 4 o’clock in the morning some of the most beautiful female impersonators would come in from Manhattan there was a certain breed of man that loved female impersonators I got a good education in Key West about this stuff but now I was going to college I’m not Gay at all but those people are the most photogenic as far as evil wicked late life and having fun check out the site

Pretty cool image right here Sal was very good friends With the midgets from the Wizard of Oz that was in 1939 ten years later he runs it to them in New York City 1949, the little guys were out of work Sal hooked them up with that bizarre traveling carnival world of mirth One of the midgets got picked up by Philip Morris as they’re a representative As sale told me these little guys were pretty wild