Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

The holidays are here and are going fast. Let me wish all my followers all the best and a heart felt thank you for stopping by. I hope that the images help in a small way to make your day better   Of course this has to be the world's most famous Christmas tree.

Light changes in a matter of seconds. I grabbed these shots last evening and as I stopped the car to shoot, the light changed rapidly. Sometimes you have to be at the right place at the right time and do a carpe lux.

Shot way back in 1972, in Scopello, Sicily, these two images show what is possible when one approaches the subject in a non confrontational manner. By confrontational I mean the usual sniping away with a long lens that is offensive and invasive to the subject. Who gives the so called photographer the right to photograph a person mind i ng his own business? Silly, as if by taking such a photo a deed of great value were made. It's annoying and totally stupid. Approach the subject and engage him in conversation. Explain what you are doing and ask permission to take the shot. You will get great candid photos in which the subject is engaged   The way he reacts to you and the camera is what makes the image a photograph. The rest is BS. Shot  way back in 1972, with a Canon FT on Agfachrome 50 that faded. One shot had to be converted to black and white.

Although many areas of Brooklyn suffered terribly from benign or not so benign neglect, it now appears that it was a prologue to the gentrification and hipsterification that followed. Thee photos were shot in Bed Stuy in the eighties and show much of devastation and abuse. Now the same area is full of hipsters riding their bikes and shopping for organic foods, cappuccini etc. C'est la vie .  

This is the last photo i took of my paternal grandmother, my nonna Maria. She died a few months after this photo was taken and I never saw her again. Shot back in 1970 before the information revolution that has made the world very small. Distance is still a bitch.    

These shots depict a colorful place that off season and without the crowds, shows it's charm. All these photos date back to ear ly 1974. All shot on Kodachrome II and have kept their colors rather well.