In 1986 I opened up Terracina West Studios I also got involved with the evil wicked nightlife in New York and New Jersey with a bunch of different magazines and 900 numbers, I had to make a nitch for myself some how, There were way too many photographers out there an Studios, sunset photos weren’t going to Work for me up north like it did in Key West These two gave me a call she was a stripper and he was a male dancer and they were getting married they let me do their engagement pictures these right here and I did their crazy Wedding party 1988 Working for those magazines got me a lot of wild Photo shoots that’s why I got successful I am a decent photographer but a hell of a salesman

After taking photographs in Key West for seven years of palm trees sunsets and little houses it was time for me to move up north not by choice I really can’t complain I had an unbelievable five years and the most disasters two, For every plus there is a minus in life anyway when I first got to New York City 1983 the World Trade Center totally amazed me I use to pull off on the side of the road in Jersey and take a picture, this one was taken off the Jersey turnpike in Secaucus I ended up selling this photo for many years it was super imposed on tiles when the world trade centers came down I stop selling them, when the towers came down I was on my way to New York City to get my equipment to photograph down there the train from Jersey was totally delayed and I got there late if I got there on time I would’ve been one of those photographers who gets up close and I would’ve been dead never forget 911

18 years ago I was going through thousands of my great uncle Sals negatives picking out the important ones to print up for my different project back then, I was going through so many negatives my head was spinning and every once in a while one would slip by me like this one if you know anything about baseball You will know who he is I don’t follow baseball at all and even I know who it is he’s in the five top best baseball players in the world this is an original negative of Joe DiMaggio at the Hollywood lounge in Manhattan great uncle Sal took this photo I wonder if he was cheating on his wife Marilyn Monroe Anyway I had this negative for a long time the thrill is gone and I have it for sale I have two offers for it if you can beat it it’s yours

Don’t get excited guys this is Frank and Johnny they had implants on their butts and breasts took out some wisdom teeth and one of them actually had a rib taken out to give him that hour glass I was a photographer at one of the top gay sports clubs in New York I even have a category on one of my sites dedicated to that bar it’s actually some pretty funny stuff portraitsofnewyork.com The category is called in and out I actually did a documentary on that bar it took a long time to infiltrate them but the owner liked me and he liked his own category on my site so the big question did these guys have their penises cut off I had to ask them myself they said what do you think we’re crazy we would never give that up I ended up having conversations with these two they had a lot of male customers that loved being with both of them at the same time We all went fishing the next day ha ha

When the Indians first came down from Central Florida to the Florida Keys this is what they saw they thought the world was flat and this was the end of the world they would also go on long journeys in the canoes and go from Island to Island to they got to Key West and that was a secret burial ground of the high Indian chiefs Back in the 70s I took so many images like this and publish them on postcards Key West is a magical place.

This was Sals first studio upstairs in his fathers house 1928 Sal just got out of Rahway State prison for arm robbery it was a set up because the police didn’t like the whole mind reading gay thing back then that penitentiary had a juvenile division Sal was 17 The guy in the middle was his first known lover Jimmy Lansing

This was one of great uncle Sal‘s main hangouts the Coral Lounge famous mob night club in Elizabeth New Jersey 40s and 50s This place was right out of Goodfellas. Sal had his name and neon out front he negotiated a deal that he had to perform there five weeks a year remember Sal was all over the place in those days world of mirth, the Korean War, working for the CIA, and a bunch of other wild things there’s hundreds of these types of negatives after Sal played the piano or did his mind reading act he would go behind the bar and do a wide angle photo of the customers I just put this image on a light box and took a picture with the iPhone what a affect some of these images haven’t been printed up for 70 years so when I start putting them on this site you’ll be the first people to see them

There has been many rumors that Sal made over 300 of these masks some not so big I have 74 of them I also have about 100 photographs of masks That don’t exist anymore, I know my great uncle Sal gave away many masks I even brought one over to Tennessee Williams House and Shel Silverstein in Key West Back in the late 70s and early 80s back in the late 70s and early 80s they were in my grandfathers bar from the late 60s if you go in the pool room now you will still see one of them hanging I know seven different relatives that each have one anyway this mask right here is in a movie called swordfish with John Travolta and Halle Berry one day I was watching the movie and John Travolta was walking across the bar and I recognized it right away. Lisa and I have 60 of them in our house some of the big ones are hanging in different rooms we even have a spare room with just masks in it that’s were I do a lot of my writing and posting photos there’s actually 14 of them right now staring at me and with all the secret ingredients in the papier-mâché and potions from around the world when I sleep in this room they definitely fuck with my dreams no bullshit I had them in three different studios in the last 20 years they all have different personalities Check out the mask section on this site pretty cool

One of those great Key West stories that’s my dad and grandfather the guy in the middle one of the most famous treasure hunters in the world Mel Fisher very good friends with my grandfather for over 25 years they became friends the first week Mel arrived To Key West to start the famous search for the Atocha Spanish Galion It was supposedly To have $800 million Dollars worth of treasure on it Well Mel discovered it 1985 only 450 million Was discovered ha ha Lisa was working on the Treasure salvage treasure salvage boat at the time She got some stories anyway Mel and my dad and myself were kind of drinkers back then Long story short we started drinking scotch and rum and beer chasers at my grandfather’s bar my grandfather who very rarely drinks started in with us He was going on and on about him being mayor and we can go anywhere he was going on and on about him being mayor and we can go anywhere we ended up going to the chart room at the pier House and then Two Friends bar I was so honored to be with these guys we sent my grandfather home in a cab Key West the way it was

Sometime I’m doing my street photography at all see a couple like this and I know I have to capture it Sometime I’m doing my street photography at all see a couple like this and I know I have to capture it portraitsofnewyork.com