A recent visit to Williamsburg’s Giglio Festival left me unimpressed. Brooklyn’s Atlantic Antic is much crazier when it comes to street fairs. But I was headed to Queens and needed to kill some time before sunset. One thing is for sure, there were characters. This guy wins many awards. He sold cigars. He smoked one. He was focused. He made me smile. He was more real than real. He was it. The reason I’d hoped off the subway and walked up and down two short blocks of noisy rides, smoky sausage stands and a well behaved and rather ordinary crowd. Someone came from behind me as I was preparing my camera and said: “Get the man in the red suit! What a great shot!”

I did. It was. But you had to be there…

The cigar seller, Italian Brooklyn