About Me

As far as I can remember I have always loved photos. We start our first books with pictures. I remember having a Kodak Brownie and also a box camera with a round red window showing what frame you were at. I was so excited seeing my black and white images. This magic started in 1961, when I was about 10 years old.

      In school I loved art; I was always drawing. In elementary school I used to draw the cover to the school newspaper. I wanted to be a car designer for Rambler way before they became American Motors. They had a very boring car and I felt I could have made a style that the masses would love. However,life got in the way of my passion. I was born in Brooklyn, we moved to Long Island when I was 5 and and at 13 my father got hurt on his job and we moved back to Brooklyn. My father was a super in an apartment building. My father’s job included an apartment and he kept changing jobs, so I ended up going to 5 high schools.  In 5 years, we moved from Long Island to a few places in Brooklyn to Miami and then back to Long Island. I saw many cultures and made many friends. Since, I am the oldest of 6 kids, and money being extremely tight if I wanted anything I had to work for it. I started working when I was 13. Thru my teenage years till my early 20's I played drums raced cars,  (5 Kids now)So it wasn't till 1978 when I bought a Nikon FE was I able to go back to my love of photography.

     I used my Nikon FE till 1990 or so, then auto focus came out and I bought a Nikon 8008. Now I could shoot faster without the worry of lining up half moons to get focus. I began shooting car accidents, Plane crashes and any news worthy image for local Newspapers while still doing my regular job. In my regular job I traveled from Long Island to upstate NY. When you shoot an accident you usually have other photographers shooting too so the newspaper would pick the best image and I'd compare mine and I'd say they were right on. This gave you a chance to see what you needed to improve on. One night on St Pat’s day I heard on my scanner that a fatal accident happened near my house. I rushed over there and shot the car that was wrapped around the tree. The people were already removed, Two young people were killed in the car, I found out later they had just got engaged. I went to my local 7-11 and phoned the newspaper to see if they wanted these images. They made the paper and I got a call from the parents and they wanted to see my images. Now I had worked my way to a Nikon F5. I think I had just bought it. As it happens I knew the people killed and they had worked at the 7-11 where,  I had called the newspaper. The morning before the accident I had a conversation with them as I was buying my coffee. Back to the parents when I showed them the images I found out who the people were. To know how your kid dies and to see how your kid dies is very heartbreaking. They started crying and so did I. I put down my camera and stopped shooting for years till..

     I met a Daily News photographer who told me a story about a car crash he covered on the thruway years ago. He shot the crash and went back to the lab to develop them and found out it was his own son. He told me we have a job to do and that is to record history no matter how painful. I really don't know how many years had gone by but it took till the Twin Towers to came down for me to pick up a camera again. By this time digital came out and I picked up an Olympus point and shoot digital. Having digital was like the old days of my Polaroid I got to see what I was doing right away. Before long I bought a Nikon D1, I had my F5 still and all my lenses. Still a serious hobby and passion I shot when ever I could. In February 2004 I was in an auto accident that cause damage to my back. I didn't know if I could do my regular job. I ride a motorcycle so I started shooting motorcycle events for myself. In December 2004, I had a heart attack. Now I decided if I was going to leave this world it was going to be with me doing my passion. In the last 3 years I've had my images published in Fullthrottle Magazine NYNE, Barnetts Motorcycle Magazine, V-Twin, Easyriders, In The Wind, Rebel Rodz,Amusin Kruisin,Vette assorted newspapers and 3 books and counting.