CUTOUTS & CLUB DEUCE

This series started like most good things do—on a whim and with a text. I messaged my friend early one morning, and by some stroke of creative luck, he was already out photographing Mac’s Club Deuce on South Beach. If you know, you know—it’s one of the city’s most iconic (and delightfully dingy) dive bars. He was using it as a reference for the miniature sets he builds—he’s an incredible artist, by the way, you can find him on Instagram at @Scaleton.

Twenty minutes later, we were shooting together. The bar was empty, the neon signs humming, the tiles cracked just right. Every surface was steeped in story—walls stained with time, signage that felt plucked from another decade, and the kind of lighting that makes everything feel like a film still.

When I got home, I started pulling out my collection of vintage magazines—mostly from the 1940s to the 1970s. I flipped through and found the pieces that spoke to me: old branding, mid-century models, strange little objects and headlines. I hand-cut them, like always, and began layering them onto the photos I had just taken.

There’s something about combining the past and present like this that feels... personal. While my photography documents a moment as it unfolds, these collage elements give me a new way to interact with it—to inject myself, my humor, my nostalgia. And somehow, these cutouts from LIFE magazine feel right at home in a place like Club Deuce.

This project is a reminder that inspiration doesn’t need a long runway. Sometimes it shows up with a text and a 20-minute shoot in a dive bar that hasn’t changed since the '70s.