Photography of Daniel Teoli Jr: May 2013

‘Captain of Wall Street 90014’

Los Angeles, CA 1974

I met the ‘Captain’ on Wall Street in downtown L.A. almost 40 years ago. We talked for a while and I asked if I could photograph him in his room. He agreed, so we went up to his single room and I took a few shots of him. Nowadays people are pretty paranoid and won’t go for that type of thing…but I still ask sometimes.

He was an interesting guy. He was an old merchant marine. He had been all around the world, and even had a shrunken head hanging in his window. The only light was the window and one bare bulb on the ceiling. His walls were hand-painted with a green jungle scene. Can you imagine trying to get a shrunken head past customs nowadays?

'The Fashion Statement'Los Angeles, CA 1972

He had worked in the fashion industry in NYC before becoming homeless. He said his pants were made from old drapes. He folded up the jacket he is leaning on to keep the outside clean to give a “good appearance” to the world. He was homeless, but he still had dignity.

It was shot with a Toyo View 4 x 5 with Super Angulon 65mm (or was it a 75mm?) In any case, the Super Angulon lenses were beautiful little gems. I loved the wide angles back then and still do today…they are so all encompassing!

My view camera work eventually evolved to a pop-up focusing hood to replace the black focus cloth. I was just too vulnerable getting under the cloth in the areas I would shoot in. While the pop- up hood made a big difference, it still did not make the view camera a viable option for my style of shooting.

I call that period in my photography my ‘Edward Weston’ period. I wanted everything to be razor sharp. I was all about sharpness - that was where I put my pride. As I look back on the 4 x 5 images I produced…many of them were pretty boring.