I have been very lucky in my photography career which spans over 42 years since my grandfather and great uncle Sal were kind of famous people I got to meet a lot of famous celebrities and even hang out with them Tennessee Williams, Shel Silverstein, Jimmy Buffett, Clarence Clemons, it’s a pretty long list but nothing tops the 10 minutes I got to hang out with Robin Williams only because I asked him the right question I asked him when was the last time he spoke to Jonathan Winters he smiled and said I speak to him every morning we were both in our zone I explained to him about how I try to Capture the interesting and funny side of people in New York City I told him I was a paparazzi of the common man and told him about my famous website when Elvis Presley Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix died it affected me but not like Robin Williams

I have been a published photographer for over 42 years 30 years of it was spent in New York City after my Key West adventures in those 30 years I have taking over a quarter million photographs end published A incredible amount I also did over 1000 portfolios worked for a bunch of different studios and had three of my own if you go to the top right hand side of this website you will see portraits of New York that consists of 65,000 photos that I edited out of a quarter of 1 million all taken by me they are also all backed up on my digital library the largest library of portraits by one artist in Manhattan mia5.com

Over 40 years ago I used to take sunset and sunrise photos in Key West it’s probably the easiest photograph to take I ended up selling an publishing hundreds of them even did a couple posters I was very lucky to hook up with Kennedy studios in Key West at one point I had 12 locations in Key West and 15 on the Jersey shore I use to set up with all this professional equipment I really look like a professional so here’s the funny thing Lisa and I took a small vacation last month to Saint Pete’s we went for a walk at sunset on the beautiful beach there and I took this photo with my iPhone it took me five seconds while I was walking technology has really changed

New Jersey is famous for its mob guys not too much these days but in the 30s to the 70s we had more connected people than ears of corn and we are the garden state this is one of my grandfathers partners back in the early 40s in 1947 they went their separate ways he went out west to California and Captain Tony went South to Key West Sal took this picture of him in 1945 I think it’s wise I still don’t say the name

The masks you were looking at were created in 1938 for the Chicago world‘s fair by great uncle Sal they never made it that’s another whole story the two masks behind Sal and my great and my great aunt Palma are actually in one of our mask rooms and our dining room they were made with special ingredients Haitian voodoo dust pyramid scrapings from Egypt Cambodian opium and secret potions from around the world not to mention one of great uncle Sal’s other secret potions all these masks assistant Sal in his mind reading acts and hypnotizing people in night clubs all over the country If you go to the category on the site called Sals masks you will see over 100 different ones used in all his studios and mine

In the mid-60s through the late 70s great uncle Sal had this incredible mask photography studio above his brothers bar in Key West Captain Tony’s Saloon He would end up doing hundreds of portraits of all the characters in Key West and trust me that place was packed with characters people like Tennessee Williams Shel Silverstein Paul Lynn Truman Capote I even had my portraits done there in 1976 I have hundreds of large format negatives in glass slides of all the people hung out at that bar 50 years ago I’ll be posting them on this site