PRINTFlash for cash
Tony Tripoli cuts the cheese
KATHERINE ORIEZ
Tony Tripoli balances over the kitchen sink as he photographs his friends’ band making pancakes. The makeshift shoot at Tripoli’s house was moved inside due to cold weather.
March 5, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Stone cold faces, hands shoved in pockets, chests puffed out and hard light hitting band members’ faces as the photographer screams, “Imagine I just punched your mom in the face!” Yeah, not so much Tony Tripoli’s scene. In fact, this was his imitation of how band photos shouldn’t be.
Tripoli’s career started with band photos and party photos, which explains his opinion of these stereotypical band shots. At 24 years old, Tripoli has Artripoli.com, his own Web site, and Time Frames Collective, a new photography business that has been gathering clients faster than squirrels gather nuts. “Since I could hold a pencil, I was drawing and doodling,” says Tripoli, who moved into his teen years as a skater rat annoying the po-po one too many times. “I was a regular Mountain Dew commercial growing up, so extreme,” says Tripoli about his start with photography. “My friends started making videos, like skateboard and snowboarding videos. I would take photos of everything we did, and it grew from there.”
Tripoli’s next adventure was exercising his artistic urges through graffiti. “I realized it’s never going to take me anywhere — except jail,” Tripoli says. So instead, he partied. He got a little wild, and he got a lot of it on film. As his party life grew, so did his photo career.
Using Artripoli.com, Tony floods the site with his party photos, witty writings and anything else he feels like smacking his many visitors in the face with. But his site didn’t always get so many hits. After documenting a 2008 spring break trip to Panama City with his friends, Tripoli’s insane talent with his craptastic camera became as apparent as pit stains on a gray shirt. Soon, he upgraded his camera and took it everywhere. Using his friends and their bands as guinea pigs, Tripoli began setting up light stands to create a makeshift photo booth whenever and wherever he could. “At first it was going really slow,” says Tripoli of a setup at a friend’s Super Bowl party this year. “Part of it has to do with the alcohol in everyone’s system when they started feeling more comfortable.”
With an impressive Web site filled with distinctive photos, it was just a matter of time before Tripoli started a business. A friend had taken notice of these wicked pictures and asked Tripoli to get in the biz.
The skater kid turned adorkable photo guy is getting noticed. Time Frames Collective recently did a Valentine’s Day shoot at Sapphire Lounge and got a great response. “I’d say he is exceptional at capturing in-the-moment kind of shots,” says Jesse Garcia, manager of Sapphire Lounge. “The guy is just great at catching people on the fly.” TFC’s focus is weddings and senior photos. However, Tripoli says, “I’m still going to keep shooting party photos for myself, and if people want to pay me to do it — awesome!”
Having a momentary panic attack because his trusty camera was, holy crap, not on him, Tripoli says that “if it’s not on my person, you can guarantee it’s within a 30-second walk.” So if you see some dude kicking it in old-school Nikes with a camera attached to his side like a stage-five clinger, chances are it’s Tony Tripoli, getting the perfect “planned, but not planned shot.”
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