Manhattan 9 o’clock in the morning I just opened up My store in Time Square We are next to a hotel this girl comes flying out really pissed off a Kodak frozen moment love the outfit

Three different photos and three different decades far right on the top the straw hat lounge Manhattan late 60s, bottom right hand corner above Captain Tony’s saloon In Key West Sals mask photography studio mid 70s I was there for that one, left hand photograph Sals studio in Manhattan late 50s

No it’s not a Halloween party or fantasy fest in Key West in fact it’s about 10 years before Fantasy fest was even thought about Captain Tony’s Dance floor 1979 when I used to work the door I would leave my position and walk around the bar to make sure nobody wasn’t unconscious, smoking weed, or having sex in the bumper pool room a little side room we had adjacent to the pool room anyway this was a new wave rock ‘n’ roll night our house band metro Would make the tourist, locals and fisherman nuts on that Dance floor many people we dress up Key West the way it was

Being the paparazzi of the common man in New York City you do capture some images from time to time especially since you’ve been doing it for 30 years I would set myself on different street corners this is 29th St. and sixth Avenue around the corner there is a methadone clinic a very popular one with all the heroin addicts so there was always a bunch of drug addicts coming and going in that intersection I would see a lot of people like this he was out of it portraitsofnewyork.com

One of my favorite photographs that my great uncle Sal took of my dad and grandfather The year 1942 my great grandfather had A house by the Elizabeth River in New Jersey My grandfather Captain Tony got his first little boat with a motor he didn’t do too much Fishing but he went by the docks at night to meet up with his buddies who were unloading ships my grandmother never could understand why He never brought home fish

Went down to my local liquor store the other day Fred was making his own masks

There’s a book out called the Peterstown press it’s a history of the Italians who lived in Elizabeth New Jersey in the last hundred years there’s pictures in There of the entire Terracina family Some of them go as far back as 1923 great uncle Sal started taking his images in the late 20s Sal has over 120 images in this book myself and Captain Tony have about 20 these three images right here of Italian bad asses of Elizabeth great uncle Joey was part of this crew 1947 I have the original glass Slides and negatives

Over 20 years ago I inherited my great uncle Sal’s art estate he was a famous mask maker mind reader piano player also well known published photographer and hypnotist He was making masks as far back as the mid 30s these two dominatrix bitches were made in the 40s lots of crazy special ingredients in the papier-mâché mix They assisted Sal in a lot of his mind reading performances and as far as studio shoots and some wild orgy parties in Indonesia they were present I used them in my studio they have a crazy effect on models Big-time

Whenever I did somebody’s portfolio in the studio I would take them out on the streets of Manhattan to do some street candidates this photo is about 13 years old back then the cops in Time Square would pose with you now they don’t do any of that I love this photo check out my digital library mia5.com 65,000 interesting photos of the 30 years I spent in Manhattan