Abstracting Jersey from Jerseylicious’ Tracy DiMarco | Photography Fridays

I’m not sure how many of you have seen the reality tv show Jerseylicious. It’s about a bunch of young women (and a couple of guys) that work in a hair salon in Jersey called the Gatsby. Either way, on the show, the young lady pictured above can come off as a real b-i-t…..you get my drift. But interestingly enough, I’m actually here to showcase another side of one of the main Jerseylicious characters, the sweet and caring side.

Tracy DiMarco has made a name for herself going head-to-head with Olivia on the show. They have truly become arch nemisises. But that wasn’t the character that I met when we finally bumped into one another. At a red carpet birthday party and PR launch event, I ran into Tracy while hanging around the red carpet. I was actually quite surprised to find myself standing right beside her, and so I decided to introduce myself. I was expecting a, “and who are you?” type of response given my experience watching the show. On the contrary, she was quite warm and we exchanged business cards.

The rest is kind of history. We touched based the very next day and I told her I had an idea for a photo shoot. I wanted to strip away the exterior that was the perception people had of Jersey girls from the ultra-glammed up looks to the somewhat abrasive personalities. She was a little worried thinking that I wasn’t going to allow her to wear makeup (mainly because I said, “I want to remove the makeup”), but after reassurance, we scheduled a date and made it happen. The pictures below read somewhat like a story. Although it isn’t a slow build up, there is a build up nonetheless of us going from Tracy DiMarco the human being with a friendly glimmer in her eye, to Tracy of Jerseylicious that doesn’t take “no crap from nobody.” It was my intention to showcase that reality is only what we make of it; and that while some on-screen personalities are as fake or nasty in person as they are on so-called reality television, some are quite wonderful once you separate them from their all-consuming images.

Tracy and I have not only shared a drink partying for her birthday, but we also shared a good ole’ Italian pizza pie, and I have to tell you, I’m really happy we met. She’s a great girl, with ambition and heart. It ended up being a really fun photo shoot, and a pleasure to work with some great talent including our stylist Spry Lee Scott and his assistant Lashae Moreland; along with MUA and jewelry designer Kati P. Anyway, go ahead and scroll through the pictures!

“Un-Jersey’d”