...Painted Black

Even 37 years after this photograph was taken racial stereotypes still taint people's perception of reality. No, this isn't a hold-up. This was taken inside John Ek's Seminole Gun Shop. Ek got his start making custom fighting knives during World War II, big hand forged knives that held an incredible edge. After the war he continued making knives, and expanded into the retail gun business. The man with the rifle in the forground was a customer, a regular at the shop. In the left rear, pointing an automatic pistol up towards the ceiling, is my friend John Patteson. He was attending Dade County Jr. College and working after school at the gun shop at the time. I don't know who the gentleman on the right was. Just there, I guess.

A few years later John Patteson opened his own gun shop, but then got involved working as an armorer and doing special effects for the Miami Vice TV show. An armorer is someone licensed to handle and account for all the weapons and ammuntion being used on the set, and in this case "special effects" means blowing things up. As far back as I'd known John he always liked to see how big a crater he could make with a cherry bomb. My back yard had a bunch of them made on Fourth of Julies and New Years Eves. They've long ago been filled in again. Since the original Miami Vice series ended he's worked on about every movie made in South Florida where weapons and explosives were employed, and he's done a lot of location work elsewhere in the world. He's also pretty damned good on the 12 string guitar. Shot with a Leica M4 and a 35mm f/1.8 Canon lens.