I've had an interest in photography & images my entire life. If the NYC photography school that I hitchhiked to visit, as a teenager, been open that Saturday ... if I had not lost the state-of-the-art Nikon camera bought after serving in Vietnam...‽ Anyway, I started taking photographs in Vietnam, many on a tiny 16-mm camera. After returning I worked on an underground newspaper,  the Pittsburgh Fair Witness, where I developed my interest in fonts/typography, layout, & color. I was already radicalized by the 13 1/2 months that I had spent on the ground in Vietnam and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr as my plane left the states and flew over the Pacific Ocean to Vietnam. A day when the fabric of the universe was torn. Earlier, it was reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson that changed the way I viewed the world. Rachel taught me that humanity could destroy the world without even trying.

I later got a BS in Biology and moved to Miami in 1980 to do graduate work in Oceanography. But life is a crooked walk and I ended up working in Information Technology as a Computer Network Manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). During my stay in Miami I've photographed 20+ years of Miami Carnival, a number of animal rights demonstrations (I'm a 30+ year vegetarian), dozens of great reggae shows in Bicentennial Park and various other important events like Nelson Mandela's visit to Miami, where the Rastafari & I stood proudly in honor. I currently live in a little slice of heaven with three black cats.

I was also the staff photographer at the Wallflower Gallery during the last several years of its existence. For those of you who don't know, the Wallflower Gallery was downtown Miami's only all-ages, original-music and art venue. A really magical place filled with four musical acts every weekend! Most of my WG images are on that website. You can find them at the WG photography page.

I have been driven by music my entire life and love to photograph musical events and dance of all forms. Everything from Whirling Dervishes to Burlesque to Carnival Mas. I setup this website to display some of the 20+ years of images of Miami's annual Trinidad-Tobago style Carnival -- I just love the soca/calypso so! -- and other important events like Nelson Mandela's visit to Miami Beach. I also love fashion & fantasy & politics. Carnival has such wonderful music, the wildest costumes, and reams of fashion. Get behind the big truck and see it live! Some of the photos may be fairly old but have never seen the light of the web. Enjoy! -- Tom Fleming