Rocco Galatioto, nice photos and good food

These images of card players on the Arthur Avenue Little Italy in The Bronx date from 1986 when I did a project involving Little Italies and feasts in the New York area for an Italian publisher. All had to be shot on slides. These are scans from Kodachromes that kept their colors well.

This blog has shied away from any political issues since it's beginning. It is a place to get away from the political insanity out there. However, what has just happened to my beloved Paris has created an instance for a temporary exemption from this rule. I will not go any further lest I  may make incendiary statements. Nevertheless, this was an act of total barbarism perpetrated by true barbarians. I will return to Paris again and again as long as I can.

Always thing of spring

Poets, writers, painters and photographers all have raved about the unique quality of Roman light. As a Sicilian I must state that the light in Sicily is more intense and colorful but as an I talian I must agree that Roman light is special in it's subtle quality. I tried to capture is one evening back in 1990 using Ektachrome. I scanned the images and did some cleaning up of the usual dust but leftthe color practically as shot. You will be the judge is I succeeded.

The most unsettling aspect of photography is actually it's greatest asses. This is the ability for a photo to freeze time. I used to be that old photos looked old and dated because the quality of the images had all faded or changed their hues. With modern technology photos hardly age. With digital they do not age at all. These photos from 1973, 42 years ago are of a film group called Total Impact. They worked out of a loft on Third Avenue and Fourteen Street in Manhattan. It was close to my studio on Lexington Avenue and Twenty Six Streets. I knew one of the big shots there so on more than one occasion I would take my Leica M-4, my Weston Master V light meter and take available light shots. These are all on high speed Ektachrome that is very low speed by today's standards, What makes these images unsettling is that these four individuals were young and in the prime of their lives. I cannot imagine what they look like today. The camera froze them forever. It is really strange b...

These images dating from 1986, show that Little Italy still had some original stores. Today it's   virtually a theme park with what appear to be spurious locales for tourists who want to experience the so called little Italy experience. All the residents are now Chinese. Too bad, but things change. Naturally the Vesuvio bakery was a testament to Italians' absolute love of good food. One of our greatest qualities. These photos are scans of Kodachrome 25 slides shot with the Nikon F and the Nikkor 35mm F 2.8 lens.

We can only say thank you

Being involved in digitizing my photo archive, I constantly find photos that I want to share. But this time I will post photos just shot yesterday morning while taking my dog for his walk. The early light is magical and complements the autumnal foliage creating stunning images. It's all about the right light.

It's impossible to describe the power and m majesty of Niagara Falls. These are images shot in the fall of 1973 and scanned. One can almost feel the incredible force.