Category Archives: Pete Hamill

Pete Hamill: Perfection

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

As a working photographer for my whole life, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with writers. And I think most writers would not only agree, but they would agree with much finer pros. When we teach photography, invariably one word comes up, and that’s “perfection”. In reality, nothing is perfect.
When you think you’ve seen everything, all of a sudden Pete Hamill, with all of his great editing skills and a history of journalism that transcends 6 decades, you would figure he would go out to pasture. Or, do old writers put the cover on their Remington typewriters? Well, he didn’t do either. Tabloid City is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. I read it once and I’m now re-reading it for a second time. He’s taken everything he’s learned in all those years and crammed it into a few pages. You can’t put it down! Pete, thank you so much. What a wonderful book. You’ve proved the old adage- you get better with age. It’s perfect!

In This Corner The Final Chapter

Posted by Joe DiMaggio on

Delen Parsley before fight
The first thing you learn in journalism school is there has to be a beginning, middle and end. Six years ago when I started the documentary “In This Corner” (I thought it would only take a year) I knew the film would have a beginning, middle but no end One of the protagonists in my film asked me if I was directing the documentary.  I explained the director was a combination of God, and him and I show up and watch the story progress.  On Sunday the 27th I had a Dumbo Workshop, sponsored by Adorama and ran into an old friend by the name of Blimp.  He informed me his son Delan would be having another fight at BB King’s and would I be going?  I told Blimp thanks for the heads up and why did he give me so much notice?  Dylan and I made an executive decision to go to the fight. We prepped the following day and headed out for another 12 hour day. I’m going to share this with you – something magical happened that evening. For the first time in many decades, I was totally relaxed and at peace with the world. I indirectly thought, let the shit fall where it falls because I’m going to have a great evening. I let Dylan do all the hard work. Well somewhere around 3 in the morning after having a celebratory Jameson with James Moore, John Duddy, and Dylan Michael, we raised a glass to James Moore’s new baby who coincidentally is also called Dylan Michael. I realized that the time they are a’changing.  I believe that this attitude change is going to stay with me for the balance of my career and I’m hoping it leads to much better filmmaking and my photography.  At least several run on sentences ago, I mentioned a beginning, middle and end.  The combination of Delan Parsley’s unanimous decision Win, running into my old friend writer Pete Hamill, and grabbing a flying noisy interview with Trainer Harry Keitt, Lou DeBella, James Moore and Duddy, we now have an honest no bullshit end to “In This Corner”  Three more days of talking head interviews, two days of “B” role, and 9 months of editing and with any luck at all we’ll have a completed (I want it to be great) film.
Photos ©DiMaggio or Dylan Michael