Labor Day is always bitter sweet for me. It signifies the “unofficial” end-of-summer (here in NY at least) but it also means it’s US Open time!!!! A lot of people ask me “how long have you been taking pictures,” and I almost always answer “for as long as I’ve been going to the US Open!” That goes back to when I was 13 and that’s the true answer. But in all honesty that’s literally the ONLY time/place I took pictures back then. I think it was my love of tennis and wanting to have my very own photos of the stars I watched that prompted me to learn how to operate a manual film camera. It was a Canon AE-1, a very common and now famous camera. You have to understand though, that the US Open back then was FAR DIFFERENT from what it is now. You could really get close to the players; I mean real close! You used to be able to watch them on the practice courts and even catch a loose ball (which I once did!). The stadium was much smaller and before every match started you could go right down to first row and take photos of the players during their warm-up period. It was awesome!
It’s worth mentioning that I still love going to the open but not once have I brought any more than my camera phone…
Anyway here are a few of my favorite photos from “early on.” The Agassi shot is my favorite because I idolized him back then, but my US Open claim to fame is that I attended the 1991 Labor Day battle between Jimmy Connors and Aaron Krickstein. I’ll never need to see another live tennis match in my life after seeing that…
