Thumbtack Jack portraits from the archives!
What’s up, Hive? I didn’t think I’d be making a blog post tonight but here I am. I was digging through some old HD’s to find dark pinup images for an NFT release on WAX and unearthed some photos that I’m sure I’ve never posted here. Firstly, I should give some context. Over 20 years ago, I was involved in the professional wrestling world. I, myself, was a death match wrestler and enthusiast of promotions like ECW. I later became involved as a fan of CZW, or Combat Zone Wrestling, and the a producer of merchandise for many of the wrestlers like Sick Nick Mondo and Nick Cage.
Around 2010, I met and started working with a German death match wrestler named Alexander Bedranowski. His in-ring persona was Thumbtack Death. He had done some really gruesome matches with my friend Drake Younger and was eventually brought over to the US to perform for CZW in South Philadelphia. I had been producing DVD’s and t-shirts for many of these performers and Alex and I decided he’s come back to Scranton, PA with me for a shoot and to record the footage for the video project. The photography is what I wanted to share here tonight.
Alex and his friend Marco made the two hour drive home with me from Philadelphia. After a day or so of recovering from the death match tournament, we ventured south to Nanticoke where I knew how to get into an abandoned train station hidden in the woods. I’d photographed models in there previously, but it would be the perfect space for an interview and portrait shoot. We brought along props like barbed-wire and fake blood and spent the daylight hours capturing footage and photos. I’ve improved a lot since this shoot, but I still like how gritty these are.
This is quite the time capsule for me. @tarotbyfergus and I went to Chicago for a GCW death match tournament in November. We’ll be going to another show in mid-June. Even though it was from a previous time in my life, it’s all coming full circle as of late. In fact, @tarotbyfergus actually owns the camera I shot these portraits with over 13 years ago. I have great memories from this time in my life and made some of the most interesting friends in the world. These photos are a documentation of my journey to becoming a professional photographer.