1985 – Favorite photos of the year
A little more action this year………..
I got hired to go to Sayreville, NJ and do some publicity shots for a rock club. The story is on bobleafe.com – just enter 19-001 into the search box.
(It involves alcohol and – horrors! – a DWI/DUI stop!)
Found this 1958 Ford coupe in the parking lot at Giants Stadium when I went to shoot a Springsteen show there. The owner was obviously a fan.
This was taken at a midnight gold record party for the band Krokus at Tower Records (Broadway and 66th St, NYC) when another photographer jumped in front of me out of nowhere and instantly surprised the hell out of me when the flash went off (don’t I look real surprised?)
The menu at this party was chili (what I’m eating) and margaritas. I have to mention that because it looks like I have a plate of dog food.
This photo was used as the lead picture in a 6-page feature about my work (you can read the title in the second picture – I’m far too modest to write it out loud) in the February 1986 issue of Hard Rock Video magazine, whose editor you’ll be introduced to in the 1986 post.
I finally came across a copy of this magazine that wasn’t yellowed with age (he’s lying – he photoshopped the yellow out of his copy). This 5-page feature was the very first “Semi-Decent Rock Photographers” spread (I’m honored) and it ran in the July 1985 issue of Rock Video magazine (the predecessor of Hard Rock Video magazine).
This first series was all black-and-white photos and after a half-dozen or so other photographers were featured, the process was started all over again with my color shots (above), so I’m doubly-honored.
I used to shoot for WNEW-FM, but I don’t know what the occasion was for this gathering of DJs and other NEW personnel in front of the old Hard Rock Cafe on 57th St in Manhattan (or who I stole the shot from).
I really don’t cook, but I DID manage to throw together this pot of chili from scratch (note the soup can full of fat – proud of me?).
Actually, I was following a recipe from the old GF, who I’m sure was a bit less messy.
For dessert, don’t order the soft chocolate ice cream!
“All alone in Burr-gen County”
I know the feeling.
SELFIE TIME! Rambo meets Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” tour headband. I never showed this to my mother because whatever “that thing” was, she was always afraid I’d poke my eye out with it (“You’ll poke your eye out with that thing”).
AROUND MANHATTAN
I have no idea where I took this shot.
I was hired to shoot the finish of a cross-country race for……..elderly vehicles? The finish line was near the World Trade Center and the story is on my site (enter 18-091 in the search box to read it, if you’re interested).
Also in the vicinity were dancing girls and a guy on stilts. Popeye, however, was in Times Square near the subject of the picture after him. Agree or not, I think that image after Popeye is interesting from an historical perspective.
The next two pictures were taken looking south and north from 65 floors up from inside the Rainbow Grill, which is in the RCA building/30 Rock (this is NOT the Observation Deck – “The Top of the Rock” – which is 70 floors up). The building is on 6th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.
The occasion was a 50th Anniversary Party for Manny’s Music, a well-known 48th St music shop. Since I was shooting through glass, there were a bunch of reflections that I spent a long time trying to remove. I did a decent job…………..I just wish the color was better.
Visible in the first (south) picture are the Empire State Building in the center, and, going to the right, the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty (very small), and New Jersey. Just to the left of the ESB and on the horizon, you can barely make out the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Visible in the second (north) are Central Park, which goes from 59th St to 110th St, the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge (very small), and New Jersey on the left.
Both scenes look different today and the RCA building has gone through two name changes.
Lastly, we come to one of the best pictures I’ve ever taken.
I’m in the only place where I could get this shot – Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ – and fireworks are going off in both the Hudson and East Rivers, while a nearly-full moon rises between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. There’s a long story about it on my site (enter 18-001 in the search box) that I think is worth reading. This version is a recently-improved one from the site image.
Late addition: I recently found a picture of me taken that night on the spot I shot from. I have no idea who took it.
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