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

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