Tell us about the inspiration for your piece.
Well, for the past few years, a friend of mine has been celebrating his birthday with an icy dip in the ocean out at Rockaway Beach. This year I was looking a lot at Bruce Davidson’s “Brooklyn Gang” photos around the time of the party, and they got me excited to try and capture the day on black and white film. Also, theres always this great nervous energy before you jump in the water. I really wanted to see that in the pictures.

What’s been your most interesting shoot thus far & why?

Definitely last year at a Lucha Libre match in Mexico City. First off, I had to sneak my Nikkormat in in my waistband (not exactly a bank heist but still exciting). What was so fun about it was shooting in the available light of the stadium. There was the bright light from the ring bleeding into the crowd, a dim glow coming off the neon signs encircling the stadium, the string lights on the vendor carts, the bare bulb in the men’s room (I decided not to shoot in the men’s room). All of it created this dark, moody environment that looked great in black and white. Anyway it’s really fun to shoot like that, it’s dark and you can’t see much and you’re just hoping it comes out half way decent, then you get a few keepers… That was a great night.

What are you working on next?
I was thinking about this during Thanksgiving actually. My parents moved to South Carolina not long ago, to an area that used to be called “The Dark Corner” in the days of prohibition. It’s a pretty infamous area down there, with some pretty interesting people. It’s also just some damn beautiful country. Maybe something down there.

www.patrickfrancisdougherty.com
www.familybandnyc.com