In 2014, today was a very good day. Part of Gannett New Jersey photo staff, I was asked to come down to Asbury Park to work for a month or so. My first assignment, I felt like I had come full circle as a photojournalist & adopted New Jerseyan. I was given the difficult task of heading to the coolest hotdog joint at the Shore and photographing one of my favorite recording artists since college. Backstory: As a junior and photography major at Syracuse University I photographed Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes on the SU quad in 1980.
34 yrs later, working for the Asbury Park Press, I was assigned to shoot Southside atop of the Windmill in Long Branch. Before the show, I was “backstage” and introduced myself to Southside Johnny, so proud to be a working photojournalist at a newspaper at had respected for so lone. He shook my hand and said I looked very familiar. I mentioned the only place we would have met was the 1980 concert in Syracuse. With a complete straight face he said, “Nope, that’s not it.” Moments like this that bridge my career as a photojournalist is why I got into the “business” of making pictures. And the interesting people and moments that you meet along the journey.
(thank you to drummer Tom 'The Goose' Seguso for offering to let me up on your shoulders for the shot)
Also big thanks for my personal archivist Rick Berger for still having the original Southside image from September 1980
