MAROWORLD

PRETTY IN PINK

2009-12-10T22:37:00.002-05:00

the journey back to LAAAAS VEGAAAAAS

2009-12-06T21:16:00.015-05:00

Last week I worked the Nascar Stewies Award show in Las Vegas at the RIO hotel. It brought back a lot since I spent my early teens in Vegas and it was also the beginning of my passion for photography. I got my first camera at 12 years old after seeing my cousin holding a Pentax k1000 with a huge chunky lens. I had never seen a woman carrying around a camera like that. In the early 80s, you didn't see a lot of women carrying SLR cameras. My mother had a 110 camera that she used quite a lot but nothing of this proportion. I didn't have friends so i spent most of my time alone pensively walking around the desert with my Yashica Fx-3...I had asked (begged) my parents for that Pentax but ended up with a Yashica which is the cheaper entry level brand. One of the happiest moments in my life was when my brother and i sneaked a peek at our christmas gifts a week before christmas. I saw a white and blue box with the Japanese word Yashica. I was so happy and i couldn't believe it. It was very adult gift for a young girl. That was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. From 1984 on i spent years spending my parent's money and any allowances or coins i could find at the bottom of my mom's purse on photo printing. Everything was about photo developing. It was a weekly occurrence. To my mother's dismay, i created hundreds of bleak lifeless photos of the desert and strange rocks...then i moved on to photos of my brothers and their friends. This was my world for many years until after college when i finally broke my shyness problem and met friends of my own. Here are two pics of my first camera and yes it's pretty beat up but sits on the top shelf of my book case. We're talking 29 years old so Yash sits there battered up in retirement.

Thanks to my metaphysical Mama, the poor man's SLR Yashica was one of the most important gifts she could have ever given me in this lifetime.

I had taped an Exposure table to the bottom of my camera to help me with f.stop calculations. Kodak would provide these tables inside the Film box that your cannister of film would come in. Remember those days?

My mother's original 110 Camera. ITT MagicFlash Telephoto Camera

DREAMING OF PHOTOGRAPHS

2009-12-01T23:24:00.011-05:00

I had another dream where i'm walking around taking these incredibly beautiful photographs. Each time i have one of these dreams, i wake up being disappointed. i don't know where i'm at while taking them, it always seems to be somewhere strange and unfamiliar but each photo is a perfect composition, a story with depth and beautiful layers. No faults or imperfections...just pure beauty and im not critical of them like i usually am. i love and hate this experience...in one sense i know i'm seeing something beyond what i could possibly find in a normal day to day but at the same rate, i wake up and to my dismay i realize it never happened. The first few minutes of waking up..groggy and eyes barely open, there is still some glimmer of hope that it may have really happened...and then when i finally wake up...i realize it was only a glorious dream of photo perfection. These dreams always feel magical...as if there is an extra level of control beyond me and a divine timing of the elements that form the photograph...each image comes together effortlessly like magic. This is what i strive for everyday - to create magic in each photograph i take, while asleep or awake.

QUEENS

2009-11-28T21:20:00.011-05:00

MORE FROM NEW YORK CITY

2009-11-25T23:50:00.008-05:00

ADAM LAMBERT INTERVIEWS

2009-11-25T23:47:00.004-05:00

shot and edited videos for the Adam Lambert interviews on SIRIUSXM.
good stuff..the boy is smart,sexy and so gay.

RAMBLING THRU BROOKLYN

2009-09-28T20:46:00.035-05:00

NOW THAT'S FRESH!

Kitty named Claus..totally blind cat, i am still contemplating adopting his brother who is also blind. Frosty. (not pictured)

BROOKLYN, BUSHWICK & BEYOND

2009-09-24T09:02:00.023-05:00

a little journey back into film shooting...living and loving the vivid deep color...posted as is..out of the camera no post-photoshopping...something great about how perfectly imperfect it is...eat dust digital!

Fellow photographer, Tina Zimmer took this portrait of me during a brunch in williamsburg at the Lodge.

THE VISITOR

2009-09-22T09:44:00.003-05:00

LONG ISLAND ZOO EXPERIENCE

2009-08-14T23:05:00.008-05:00

Recently visited the Long Island Zoo. Wow..kinda disturbing. All the animals looked a little rough...matted fur, small cages, overfed animals, isolated zebras, a big old giraffe stuck in a big barn..and there was a Big Cat show that i thought was going to end up with an inexperienced cat wrangler getting eaten by a pissed off tiger. Don't think i'll be visiting a zoo anytime soon.

MGMT CONCERT IN THE PARK = REALIZATION I AM NO LONGER 16. WTF? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? NO!

2009-07-20T20:00:00.045-05:00

I recently attended the MGMT concert at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY on July 1, 2009. It was an interesting experience with an average audience age in the 14-22 bracket..many of whom were all sporting their scarves, bandanas and tie dyes..it was a regular love in - even if all the kids seemed to come off like spoiled brats. There was also some serious under age drinking going on near the stage. This i was not guilty of when i was 16..ok so i was thrown out of a Ramones concert once.

Sucker and Kuroma were the warm up bands for MGMT. Kuroma turned out to be the highlight with their unassuming looks and very assuming guitar solos. Another highlight was overhearing the deep conversation among the groupies in the long serpentine line that wrapped around the park pre-show. Impatiently waiting in line, young teenagers prattled on about how MGMT is not Management but M G M T. "Like don't you know?" My date was not amused. You know it's bad when a 27 year old complains she feels old. Another highlight was watching the people dance in the "free seats" located outside the park while "A Time To Pretend" echoed in the distance...they were singing "a time to pretend we have tickets to this show..."
All and all, i enjoyed the evening...even if i felt like 80.

The scarf wearing, bandana sportin, obnoxious kids in line..."it's M G M T!"

My partner in crime, Megan...expressing her disdain for the kids above...

MGMT KIDS!

4:48AM

2009-04-26T03:27:00.007-05:00

Restless. Thinking of change. Sometimes i'm moving so fast i can't feel my life. Tonight i can feel. Only after opening up and expressing something beyond me can i finally feel my life. In this moment, i have gratitude. Being here and being able to express myself through a medium i understand enough to get out of the way for. For being able to make others see themselves in another light. To find beauty in every human being...maybe the very same beauty im waiting to discover in myself.

I think of my mother. I think about whether im a good daughter. If im a good friend. A good lover. A good person. If im on the right track. If im too hard on myself. If im too critical. If im impossible. If i haven't contributed. If I haven't made a difference.

If only for this moment..i am free and i'm made of everything.

BW KODAK DISPOSABLE // 2005

2009-03-14T10:55:00.017-05:00

i recently shot off the rest of what was left on an old disposable camera i found from 2005/2006. it expired 2006 so im guessing anywhere before 2006. there is a clear difference in digital/film. seeing these reminds me of what film photography can achieve even from a crumby expired disposable.
soft, emotional, intriguing and otherworldly...i think digital struggles to find that sensitivity even when retouched. there is an atmosphere, dimension and softness that film has in its pure untouched form that digital tries so hard to be but cannot...yet?

a lot of my club photography in 2001-2003 was done using disposable cameras due to the fact i was broke. strangely enough i think those early years of using disp cameras helped define my style.

the disposable years: 2001-2003

KINGS OF LEON

2009-03-05T11:23:00.007-05:00

WINTER WONDERLAND NYC // MARCH 2009

2009-03-03T20:03:00.004-05:00

STEVEN

2009-01-26T02:20:00.005-05:00

BOWIEBALL

2008-12-08T12:46:00.017-05:00

the night was a total success. off the hook. close to 1,000 people showed. very hot indeed. some highlights from the night...

the rest are here: www.flickr.com/photos/missmaro
and a slideshow was published on the Village Voice Online

SCOTT WEILAND

2008-12-01T22:36:00.003-05:00

ELECTION DAY 2008

2008-11-07T00:21:00.021-05:00

i woke up extra early to vote, 7ish...walked a block from my apartment to vote..i could already feel the excitement and electricity in the air..this was going to be one hell of a day. the day was charged..mass consciousness all focused on a victory for Obama...wow..what an incredible feeling to have a vote count towards something you believe in and to feel the mobilization of the masses. VIVA OBAMA!

LEATHER FEST 2008 NYC

2008-10-13T21:25:00.025-05:00

I had a really great time having my way with the boys on Sunday. Below are some highlights from Sunday. The entire slideshow is on the Village Voice Online

View the entire slideshow on the Village Voice Online

BROOKLYN GIRLS

2008-10-10T21:12:00.025-05:00

I recently had a cameo appearance in Hooray For Goodbye's music video for the song "Brooklyn Girls" I played a photographer photographing a brooklyn chick on a rooftop...here are a few photos from that video shoot...

MICK ROCK

2008-10-10T20:41:00.012-05:00

Mick Rock made an appearance at the Rock & Rescue Benefit...along with debbie harry, moby, ADRock, JD Samson, Gina Gershon and others...

MICK & MARO

the rest of the event photos are here: Village Voice Online

BUSHWICK WASTELAND SOON TO BE HIPSTERLAND

2008-10-10T15:44:00.008-05:00

deryck todd lives in bushwick

YES OBAMA! YES

2008-10-08T09:14:00.018-05:00

ok, so this rather large graffiti tag appeared on the wall across from my apartment building in Bushwick this week...i'm pretty sure the artist who created it lives in my building...i could smell residue krylon spray paint fumes in my stairwell. Not very artful but very poignant.

JUSTINE JOLI // ADULT FILM ACTRESS & MODEL

2008-10-05T10:31:00.012-05:00

had the pleasure of running into Justine Joli last night at the Ellen Stagg party at Savalas in Williamsburg. She is a super cool person not to mention super gorgeous..

and Ellen Stagg, Photographer