One of those bizarre coincidence stories eight or nine years ago,I was photographing in times square like I’ve been doing for 30 years, always looking for an interesting face I seen these two girls walking around I told them how would you like to be on this new famous website Portraits of New York I will Immortaliz you, That was one of my great lines anyway I took some portraits of them three years later which was six years ago I was at my lawyers penthouse New Year’s Eve party On 45th and 5th Avenue my lawyer told me he wanted me to meet some doctor from Key West one of his clients I got to meet Dr. Catana We started talking and I told him my name he said do I know a Louis Terracina I said that’s my dad he goes that’s my patient we talked for a little while and he introduces me to his wife and daughter they looked a little familiar but it went right over my head Three years later I’m going through some old memory chips and these two girls pop up since I took so many pictures Oh them at the party I put it together I called the doctor up And told him and told him not only is he my father’s doctor he was Lisa’s mothers doctor and a bunch a friend of mine‘s

I’ll never forget this day 44 years ago it was my dad‘s birthday he turned 40 and I was 21 we were partying in Key West on our way to captain Tony’s saloon to get our pictures taken above the bar at Sals mask photography studio We just smoked a big fat joint and did a couple lines this was 11 o’clock in the morning when we got to the bar my grandfather Captain Tony gave his son my dad a great bottle of scotch for his birthday so you no we opened that up Sal had a bunch of costumes in the studio and dressed my father up as a gladiator and me as a pirate, After Sal did our make up I rolled another joint and we got plastered look at my father’s eyes Key West the way it was

Something for you up-and-coming big city street photographers there’s two ways of taking a portrait of a stranger on the street approaching you, number one you could sneak the photo pretending you’re a tourist and photographing something in the background never have eye contact with them while doing this, Another way is stop them and ask them you could say hey that’s a cool outfit can I do a portrait of you or, you could say you are a portrait photographer doing a project and you like the look. The most important thing is you have to realize in big cities there’s a lot of crazy people walking around that are very depressed the only way they can release there depression is by getting angry and lashing out at somebody that’s what They do all day look for someone to argue with getting caught taking a picture of them is total grounds for them flipping out on you in this photograph right here I saw the person mumbling to themselves I knew there was going to be a great chance if I took this photo he would flip on me this is when my passion for the image overrides my fear once again I was right he took a swing at me luckily I knew it was coming and stepped back quickly, my only defense before fighting is holding up my press pass everybody stops for a second to look at it usually they calm down I was lucky this time

My great uncle Sal has been making mask as far back as the mid-20s when he was a teenager he actually made them through his entire life until his death in 1995 that’s over 70 years I have a large part of the collection this mask right here is a certain style he did in the 60s he would do a mask of John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley but he would make them look gay since Sal was gay he thought everybody was gay in someway or another that’s why he liked to hypnotizing people to get that out of them back in the 30s when he performed in clubs he would hypnotize a young man that he figured out was in the closet and pull him out that would be Sals new friend that week he was excellent at it When I was going through Sals photography with the masks he did tons of portfolios with them and that’s why I started doing 20 years ago like this image here

Her name was bubbles I photographed her in the late 80s she was a feature dancer wherever she worked she had top billing I photographed her at a club in North Arlington NJ called Snappers she actually did a wild show on stage I ended up doing her portfolio and we put her on the front cover of one of our magazines she was old-school an funny as hell That was 30 years ago I always wonder where these girls are now hopefully they married one of the rich customers

Most people heard this story 20 times I say it all the time on Facebook, Pretty much 40 years ago I had something to do during the day at my grandfathers bar in Key West as I pulled up on my bicycle I saw this beautiful tall model type standing out in front of the Bikini store across the street she had a long summer on with a tight red top with incredible breasts she was 17 years old like the Beatle song she was just 17 you know what I mean, I was 23 at the itime I put my bike away and went across the street to introduce myself she actually just started working there I asked her if she wanted any type of juice or soda she took a cranberry juice I made it special for her lime, soda water, in a beautiful tall glass we talked for a couple minutes I told her she should stop by and hear the band one night two days later right after sunset her and her mother were riding bikes past the bar I was working the door they both stopped we started talking I asked her how old she was she said 17 I asked her when she’s going to be 18 she said in October I said when you turn 18 let me be the guy to take you out she smiled and looked directly in my eyes and said why don’t you take me out now, The next night we went to dinner hung out at sunset smoked a couple joints and held hands I was in love couple more dates One of them was me taking her up the Florida Keys and take some photos she wore the white bikini in this post it was over for me we moved in together within two weeks we ended up Living Together for two years on that wild crazy island we had many distractions back then we split apart she went back to Georgia for a year and I started fucking up my life by time she came back to Key West I was on my way out anyway long story we short we didn’t see each other for 37 years we ended hooking up on Facebook had some great conversations within a week we both fell in love and within two months I moved here and we got married we’ve been together now for years it’s never too late to live happily ever after

In New York City during the Halloween weekend there’s more of those type parties then New Year’s Eve parties sometime I would photograph three of them in one night which means I’ll be partying from right after the village parade till four in the morning By time I’m at the third party my memory shuts down I don’t have blackouts but the memory shuts down those little Digital memory chips Or actually like brain memory chips when I go through them I remember things like this photo right here from 15 years ago this party and memory was completely erased from my mind but now that I look at it through the computer everything comes back that’s my partner with the patch on his eye and a bunch of our friends I’m going to send them some of these images

My grandfather Captain Tony hired lots of people that workrd for him at the bar or doing stuff on the boat A lot of bad asses most of the people who did side jobs for him were from Elizabeth New Jersey this girl right here tiny the most dangerous bouncer he ever hired a 320 pound vicious bull dyke who hated men and had a very dangerous overhand right like Mike Tyson she knocked out many a man If a guy was bothering a girl customer she would warn him once never twice my great uncle Sal took this portrait of her the stories about her were epic She was there and 72 just before I started working there I did have one consultation with her it will be in the book and by the way I got suspended on Facebook because I said 320 pound bull Dyke

For over 40 years I have been doing portfolios of beautiful women and publishing over hundreds of them I have this massive collection of proofs only because I was in the business I have about 1500 original prints an over 40,000 negatives probably one of the largest collections in the world i’m not talking about all the women I photographed with the digital camera in night clubs the last 20 years of that I’m talking about film I decided to revamp my website that you’re on right now I had it for almost 20 years going to be putting up some great images and then every couple days throw in a group of what I think beautiful women I’m tired of the suspensions on Facebook especially this one for a month now

Did you ever see the movie Scarface with Al Pacino you know the Tony Montana guy Well in 1980 I was in the right place at the right time two blocks from my grandfather’s bar in Key West was the US Naval base that’s where all those family members and criminals came in I was very fortunate to be one of the photographers at the Key West Citizen newspaper I was the photographer assigned to photograph all the refugees and the chaos going on there, the way it was Castro would give you one of your relatives but you had to take 10 mentally ill or criminals out of the hospitals an prisons some very wealthy families in Miami we’re paying major bucks to make the boatlift to Cuba not only did I publish 17 photos 10 of them front page I also sold some of them to other newspapers around the country, while I was doing all that some very wealthy Cubans got in touch with me to get some boats this photo right here was one of my front page images I learned a trick these refugees coming across the Florida streets we’re dying for a cigarette so I would bring a couple packs with me sometime actually throw it on the boat before it even tied up I got an a little trouble for that stunt anyway it was an amazing two months for me made a lot of cash brought me to the level of a real photo journalist Key West the way it was