Mondo 107
My Party on the 107th Floor of One World Trade Center started in April of 1997 and ended that fateful week of September 2001. From 1997 to 2000, it was named Stratolounge. This was when I was playing music exclusively from LPs I had collected while traveling as a Flight Attendant, mostly of obscure 60's and 70's orchestral music, commonly but mistakenly referred to as Elevator Music, as well as Italian, French and Indian film soundtracks, 60's discotheque music among others, all integrated under the moniker "Lounge." I was basically among the first Lounge DJs in New York City. During this period I was photographing the party with color film using a Contax T2. After a DJ trip to Tokyo, I got involved with a new contemporary Lounge movement, which although I was quite familiar with, changed my direction on the 107th Floor. By the year 2000, I had gone digital with both the music and the photography, using CDs for deejaying and a small point and shoot digital camera for photography, and I also renamed the party Mondo 107. The following photographs are from Mondo 107, in which I kept the deep rich warm hues recorded by the camera in this particular lighting situation. I am also quite fond of photographic effects and/or artifacts, in this case the Red Eye effect, and I not only keep it in these images, but also celebrate it.
