When I opened Up my photography Mask studio in 2004 I bought a used 1991 Fleetwood Cadillac four-door incredible interior did a lot of portfolios in there Mary Rogers dancer

I took this portrait of my dad and my grandfather that’s when Captain Tony was a New Jersey gangster 1934 last August 10th my grandfather would’ve been 104 years old we had a big party at the bar it’s funny we are all 20 years apart I’m 64 my dad‘s 84 and the captain would’ve been 104 Miss that old pirate

My great uncle Sal tactically was a famous published photographer he just never promoted himself he was too busy playing the piano professionally making masks reading minds and hypnotizing people from 1927 till his death in 1995 he always shot large format never 35 mm He either used a 4 x 5 negative or a 2 1/4 This is one of his 2 1/4 negatives that he probably never printed it up sometime I find A amazing negative and I Print it up sometime I think he left them for me

If you ever saw the movie Scarface with Al Pacino you would remember in the very beginning it showed all the Cubans arriving to Key West, at that time I was a staff photographer for the Key West Citizen newspaper and my grandfathers bar Captain Tony’s saloon was two blocks from the Navy base as soon as the first group of Cuban refugees were being processed I was first photographer on site this was one of my first Front page photos this photo went out to at least 30 major newspapers in the country It was my lottery ticket not as far as money but putting me in the class of a published photo journalist I ended up publishing 17 grade photos from the boatlift I broke free from the sunset sunrise postcards I was doing 1980

In August of 2004 I wrote a story about my great uncle Sal an submitted 20 photographs pertaining to the story, A major publishing company in Germany gave me a call right away at the same time the American photo Magazine contacted me within one month I landed the feature story editors choice in American photo that went worldwide they gave me a nice check, right after that Tashan publishing company who just completed the Muhammad Ali book flew one of their editors to America From Germany to meet me and see what I actually have with in three days of negotiating they gave me a contract and check, after the magazine article came out and my one Cablevision special on Sal in New Jersey, I caught the attention of Badco films in California One of the partners is from the band Devo you know that song whip it good, we spent six months negotiating a movie deal on Sals life I got my contract am I great sign on fee and then something happened to them and their company like my book contract in Europe it was like Sal and the masks put a curse on them so after 16 years I am now a free agent with all my images negatives and masks, we now have a bunch new offers

In 1999 I snuck into the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, I was known for sneaking into many events in the city I had my secret entrance ways, I had a great collection of some very fancy sports jackets and always carried a small handheld professional camera I came down the elevator from the third-floor within one minute Leonardo De Cappio walking very quickly flies by me I take the shot at 3:45 in the afternoon I was thrown out at 3:47 but I got one cool picture if you go to Keiths works on this site you’ll see a lot of my paparazzi photos tactically I’m famous for being a paparazzi of the common man that’s why there’s 65,000 images on my digital library that was edited out of a quarter of 1 million check it out mia5.com They say it’s the largest Portrait website Buy one single artist in New York City and I still haven’t found anybody to Beat my numbers sorry about the bragging it’s an Italian jersey thing

One of my favorite images of my great uncle Sal’s masks and I have hundreds of them, I even have 65 of them in my collection this photo was taken in great uncle Sal’s mask studio in 1949 when he was with the world of mirth the bazaar traveling carnival most of the mask in there were created in the mid 30s for the Chicago world‘s fair they never made it that’s all the big ones that are hung up, Sal made around 300 masks in his lifetime he started making them when he was 16 years old in 1927 he continued to make them until his death in 1995 the ones you’re looking at we’re also used for his mind reading act and hypnotizing people a lot of special ingredients went into the papier-mâché mix pyramid scrapings from Egypt, Haitian voodoo dust, a lot of secret potions from around the world, Sal did a lot of traveling he was an undercover photographer for the OSS that was CIA during World War II In the early 40s, he also did some work for them during the Korean War in 1951 Most of these masks of this size are gone the three in the middle I have, they’re actually in two of our rooms I have 65 the masks and they do have special powers I forgot to mention the special secret ingredients in the papier-mâché mix that will be in the book lease and I have 30 mass hung up in our house we have the rest in storage check out the mask section on this website pretty cool

Does anybody remember the band Devo you remember that famous song, Wip It Good They have been punking out for close to 45 years, One of their main singers Gerald Caselli Is my partner on one of my Sal projects I got to hang out with them and party with them I also photographed A lot of their concerts Atlantic City, Hard Rock Cafe, New York City this photo right here I took at a giant Street concert they did between 45th St. and 47th and seventh Avenue it was a hell of a concert it’s funny I’m 64 years old and these guys are 10 years older than me pretty wild A fun fact they are the guys who really invented techno.

If you look at this sign you will see Sals name was put there in neon if you ever saw the movie Goodfellas all those mob guys hung out at a club like this. This is the-exact club 10 years before Goodfellas, this wasn’t the 60s it was the 50s Sal did his piano playing mind reading and hypnotizing routine there he had a little apartment upstairs where he would do private readings of course he had a little photo mask studio up there, if you came into the club Sal would know right away if you were in the closet his mission that night was the pull you out of the closet and bring you upstairs to his little studio fun room to do a private reading he told me some pretty crazy stories one of the best stories he told me is when he convinced the owner of that nightclub to put his name in neon even though he was still traveling all over the world and doing what he wants people love to hear him sing and play the piano I really miss my great uncle Sal

In 1989 I landed the job of jobs I became the staff photographer of mentertainment magazine there was actually three issues one from New York and Jersey and then a quarterly that went to every strip club in America the ones for New Jersey and New York came out once a month a lot of great photos ads and stories, my job was to go to as many gogo clubs as I can take pictures of all the girls try to sell some ads, And then during the day do a bunch of nude portfolios that I booked myself from Meeting so many dancers I would offer them free photos of them live on stage just to come down to the Studio I would usually talk to me into a portfolio I was a hell of a salesman I was actually getting paid for girls to takeoff their clothes in front of me three years after all the smoke cleared I published over 1200 dancers and acquired 1700 releases also did close to 200 portfolios of exotic dancers these four pictures here we’re just from one roll of film at a club i shot in New Jersey called lookers it’s been there close to 40 years family-owned Greek diner with the strip club attached one of our main advertisers at the time the funny thing is beside taking all those photos I carried a micro recorder around with me because I was meeting so many dancers my brain couldn’t absorb all that information, sometime I pop in a tape just to listen to what was going on in my head 30 years ago funny stuff