Somebody recommended them to me they do movies they wanted me to photograph the stills I will leave it at that Don’t get crazy they were ballerina dancers I think

If you cross under the bridge between the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico in Islamorada the water will change to this quickly don’t get me wrong the Atlantic side is very beautiful also, no matter how crowded it gets in the Florida Keys and Key West and how sick people get this will always be like that I think I want to spend the next 10 years of my life on a sailboat stay right off the Florida keys I have many friends who did that their whole life it’s not too shabby

Every once in a while I post a picture and I say a photo could tell 1000 stories this is one of those my great uncle Sal shot it could tell 5000 stories The year 1973 the Village New York City, Sals friend was a projectionist for this triple X theater one of the most illegal ones in the city probably also the filthiest as far as hygiene but I heard the popcorn and hotdogs were great ha ha, they had private booths in their live sex shows on stage and things downstairs in the dungeon you don’t want to know about Sal said it was more crowded between five and six in the morning then any other time wow

Back in the mid-70s when I first started photographing in Key West I would go to every sunset either at Mallory Square or mostly at Simonton Street where most of us locals hung out and then after going out all night partying a lot of us would end up at sunrise at White Street pier to smoke a joint either to start the new day or end the wild evening, we all still had white powder on our noses Key west back 40 years ago was a lot wilder than people think trust me on that one, I always brought my camera to capture sunrise, In the summer the ocean was flat calm with no breeze at times it was a giant sheet of glass if you were doing some type of Hallucinogenic Psychedelic drugs you were in for quite a visual experience like the planetarium but for real, this is an image I photographed in August 1977 Kennedy studios published it for me The funny thing was Bob Kennedy who owned Kennedy studios Was with me at the time We were hanging out with a bunch of tourists Key West the way it was

Great uncle Sal was a entertainer his whole life playing the piano, reading minds, hypnotizing people his two favorite things were to make masks and photograph people he would always find these jobs that would put him in weird situations night clubs during prohibition traveling carnivals and reading minds an hypnotizing people at mafia bars or gay bars everything was always fun for him especially finding people that were in the closet and pulling them out by hypnotizing them or reading their minds I guess that was his number one fun thing sex I spent a lot of time with my great uncle Sal when he had his studio above Captain Tony’s saloon mid 70s taking photos and making masks the most time I spent with him was his mask photography studio in Manhattan early 90s this is where I heard all the stories they are all so fascinating a lot of them are published articles and stories but the time he spent with the bazaar traveling Carnival the world of mirth 1949 really got my attention he traveled with a lot of the burlesque girls midgets psycho clowns and all the people who worked in that industry wow this image right here is not a midget he’s a dwarf my great uncle Sal explain the difference to me another wow

40 years ago I was on my way to work at my grandfather’s bar in Key West I noticed a new girl standing outside in front of the Bikini store she just started working there and doing some modeling for them long story short I introduce myself we went on a couple dates some adventures and bingo I have some spectacular 17-year-old model living with me on that beautiful tropical island, you know that song by the Beatles She was just 17 you know what I mean, well that was her, I was 23 at a time and a up-and-coming published photographer among other things, this was one of our first photo shoots together we partied all night at the bar closed it down at four In the morning And then went on some crazy adventure till after sunrise we had to be at this photo shoot at nine in the morning at the old wooden pier in Key West she was one of the models and I was assistant photographer, a couple double espresso’s and we were ready to rock ‘n’ roll of course a couple lines didn’t hurt and I smoked a big fat one Key West the way it was when I took this photo this guy was checking out my babes butt Funny thing lisa and I spent two years together On that crazy island we both split apart too many distractions never seen each other again for 37 years we met on Facebook four years ago talked on the phone every night for 3 months And then I moved everything down here and married her it’s never too late to live happily ever after

After my grandfather fled Elizabeth New Jersey to go hide out in Key West he arrived There in 1947 with about $15 in his pocket he probably gambled that away the first day in Key West he already lost all his traveling money in Miami at the horse track so he hitchhiked down to Key West, his brother Sal and Tennessee Williams told him about that magical place great place to hide out in when my Grandfather got there he was totally homeless, he slept under a dock for a couple nights with the other homeless dock rats that’s what they called them back then, he found out about a job he could get heading shrimp at a factory You could get $.10 a bucket But your hands are going to get real swollen The shrimp has had little spikes in them with a slight poisoning in them he had to soak his hands in bleach anyway real long story short the guy standing next to my grandfather in this photo is Mr. Paul he owns a bunch of fishing boats he took my grandfather under his wing taught him how to fish mr.Paul would eventually start a company called Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks by this time my grandfather had become a great fisherman and Mr. Paul wanted him to be partners in that multi million dollar company before that happened of course but my grandfather‘s exact words were thank you so much but I want to become captain Tony of Key West famous fisherman, smuggler, gambler, womanizer, saloon owner and be the mayor Of that crazy island of that crazy island he wanted to famous that’s how us New Jersey Italians roll, Well he did I really miss that old pirate

I spent three decades photographing in Time Square the crossroads of the world the most traveled intersection on planet earth By strange and interesting people And a lot of curious ones my digital library has over 65,000 people on it that I edited out of a quarter of 1 million mia5.com, I was doing it before the digital thing I have lots of negatives but when the digital camera came out it was easy for me to shoot two or 300 different people a day I am still editing through digital chips it’s an art project still in the works, anyway this image right here is two religious fanatics at the highest level having a argument right in the middle of times Square I would see both of them for years never saw them collide I shot a video of the argument and did a bunch of stills you could be Catholic, Jewish,Protestan, or a bunch of those other religions if you go to Times Square and try to save people I think that goes under the category of a fanatic there are so many people that truly believe in God so much that they want to make sure you do also they know to go to time square And spread the word

99% of the photos on my website here are either taken by my great uncle Sal, Captain Tony, or myself this is a very famous photo that I posted that we didn’t take it’s Mel Fisher‘s treasures salvage boat above the famous Atosha treasure site 30 miles off the shores of Key West this was the week they discovered $450 million with treasure in the background is Donnie Lisa in Debbie an directly in the front is Jimmy Buffett in Mel Fisher 1985