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
Every photographer has that one photo that tells 1000 stories since my great uncle Sal always put himself in crazy situations he has a bunch of them, this one here is one of my favorites during World War II and the Korean war great uncle Sal worked for the OSS that was CIA back then He was an undercover photographer with the seafarers union photographing ships in transit and ports around the world, of course Sal took full advantage of the situation to build up his already amazing portfolio in 1942 and 1951 he got to travel around the world twice and visit exotic places and take lots of photos This published photo right here is one of my favorites it’s been published in three different countries in three different languages it’s a Cambodian opium den Sal heard so much about them mostly because of the wild prostitutes upstairs that was secondary from the opium he wanted to experience it’s so bad and of course take pictures his plan was to get in there smoke some opium take some pictures and get laid he didn’t realize the addiction of the opium and how much he would like it, Long story short he was stuck in there for a couple days smoking opium and getting laid He did get a chance to take this one photo they chased him out of there Sal almost didn’t get back to the ship they were leaving without him
Sal got his first camera from his art teacher when he was 15 years old in 1926, She knew he had something her name was Miss Wolf, I started editing my great uncle Sals estate 20 years ago I found an envelope of very old negatives on the envelope that said my first images from my new camera this was one of them don’t know who they are So here is the funny part of the story in 1965 I was transferred from Catholic school to public school there was a little old lady that I met she was the art teacher in the school as soon as she saw my last name she asked me if I was related I told her he is my Great uncle I remember the big smile she gave me she told me she watched a lot of his performances at different Night clubs in New Jersey and they were friends
1932 Sal was 21 years old he was always going over to New York to buy clothes he was always well-dressed and as far as him coming out of the closet he never came out of the closet he was just gay and didn’t care what people thought back in those days being from an Italian community you would think it would be very dangerous it was for all the straight people that made fun of him you see Sal could fuck you up mentally and physically remember he could read minds he was famous for implanting thoughts in peoples heads on Monday and then mention something on Wednesday pertaining to the thought he put in your head From Monday and really fuck you up He was a wizard
Some people look at Robin Williams as the funniest man on earth and yes he is known for being that, but behind that I discovered there is this real caring person and understanding I was very fortunate to hang out with him one on one for about 10 minutes yes he is hysterical but there Is so much knowledge behind the man
In the very early 50s great uncle Sal made a bunch of masks of Hollywood celebrities in drag, There in my collection Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson 20 years ago I had a bunch of them in my store on Prince and Broadway there was this major path demonstration Everybody was smoking all kinds of weed in that March I decided to smoke some and put the Lucille Ball mask on and walk through the crowd see why I don’t smoke weed anymore
40 years ago I was a photographer for the Key West Citizen newspaper, I was very fortunate because back in those days there were all types of things going on in Key West, I got to photograph the largest drug seizures in the state of Florida, all those Tony Montana refugees coming in from Cuba I was there I ended up publishing 17 front page stories and a bunch of other published photos Even sold photos to high times magazine, during the Cuban boatlift there were hundreds of ships and boats coming into America with refugees it was crazy, two blocks away from my grandfather‘s bar was the naval base, with my press pass I can go in and out of there all I wanted and take tons of photos I even got lucky in Miami with a lot of rich Cuban relatives that wanted to get their relatives out Of Cuba, I knew a bunch of captains and boats that would take the trip this was also when all the big drug smugglers started making moves because there was thousands of ships everywhere coming in to South Florida It was crazy and very exciting miss those days
When you’re on the streets of Manhattan as long as I have been you see a lot of things going down, like for instance this barefoot prostitute flying by me I saw her around for a month she always had shoes on I could tell she was on crack big-time, We crossed eye Contact several times she didn’t know if I was an undercover cop but she knew that I knew she was a prostitute, I saw her in three fistfights in time square and I watched many times men approaching her and she would leave with them, and then one day she was gone, for 30 years I spent on the streets in New York I seen this happen to hundreds of people male and female there around for a while then they disappear Check out my digital library 65,000 people of New York City edited out of a quarter of 1 million it’s a one-of-a-kind website all shot by one artist myself
From my age of 20 to 28 I spent in Key West working for my grandfather part time at his famous bar Captain Tony’s saloon and doing sorts of other things, mid 70s early 80s things were amazing the first six years the next Two years was the most disasters in my entire life even till this day, I also fucked up my relationship with him after regrouping in New Jersey and New York and opening up my new studio we joined forces again and smoothed things out this was the day he came and visited me in my studio in New Jersey, I was 30 he was 70 everything started up again I kind of became this famous photographer, he became the mayor of Key West and we were rocking and rolling he was once again proud of me which was very important to me
