Allen Spatz

Allen was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City. Allen was attracted in his early teens to Doo Whop music and loved to dance to it. Some of those songs were dancing to the beat of the Cha Cha. It was through that, that Allen's favorite genres of music began with listening and dancing to Latin Music aka SALSA, CUBAN "Son", and LATIN JAZZ. Growing up Allen's musical idols were (and remain) Tito Puente, Joe Cuba, Ray Barretto, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco, Johnny Colon, Orquesta Broadway. In 1970 Allen was introduced to the musical sounds of Cuba, with such bands as Orquesta Aragon, Arsenio Rodriguez, Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Felix Chapottin, Celia Cruz, Bene More and so many more.

Growing up in New York City, Allen was lucky enough to frequent many of the fabulous clubs such as the El Corso, La Maganette, Copacabana the Village Gate and many others, where musicians performered and thrilled their audiences. Allen wanted to capture the moments of these wonderful artists and decided to photograph them whenever he had the opportunity. Allen began to network and connected with many of his idols. In addition to still photography, he also captured some performances on video at the famous Club El Flamingo, preserving a moment of artistic flair, to forever be appreciated by all.

In 1998 Allen was fortunate to be introduced to the founders of The INTERNATIONAL SALSA MUSEUM in "El Barrio" (Spanish Harlem). Once he showed them some of his photographs of Salsa musicians, they asked Allen to be part of the museum and become there archival photographer displaying his work in homage to Latino musicians as well as photographing them at the venues were they performed, to which he accepted proudly. Unfortunately in 2004 the museum closed.

Currently, Allen does freelance photography for many Latino musicians and non-profit organizations as well as for corporate and family events. He also is the Director of Still Photography and Co Producer for: CapicuFilm Arts (www.capicufilmarts.com) and J&G Media, two independent production companies located in New York City. Some of Allen's photographs can be seen on: www.allenspatzphotography.com

In 2008, Allen was introduced to the owners/ founders of Latin Beat Magazine (www.LBMO.com) and became one of there contributing photographers.This even more gave him access to cover events on there behalf.

Allen's love of this music and his reason for photographing events, is to document this wonderful genre, and while doing so capturing those special moments as well the unexpected.

Since 1977, Allen resides in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York. Show less