Very exciting moment from Summer 2025! JAWS was released in theaters on June 20th, 1975; in commemoration of the film’s 50th anniversary, the Vineyard transformed into Amity Island that same week in June, playing host to panel discussions with cast and crew, tours highlighting key filming locations, and tons of other sharky events.
That weekend also happened to be Oak Bluffs Harborfest, the annual celebration along the OB Marina that always marks the kickoff to full-on island summer.
At Harborfest this year, I painted a shirt for a young gentleman who was carrying around a silver-encased film camera. Brian’s airbrush concept was to do a set of shark jaws, with the theme ‘I Broke My Jaw On Martha’s Vineyard.’ I did the shirt and he snapped some action photos with his camera as I was spraying.
When it was all finished he revealed, “I’m actually here shooting film of the JAWS 50th Celebration for the New York Times. If any of these photos come out good, I’ll try to convince my editor to use one in our feature.”
I couldn’t believe it, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high .. but sure enough, in the next online edition of the NYT my photo was up there spraying this shirt on the Oak Bluffs Harbor!
If you have a NYT online subscription you can view the full article here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/movies/jaws-50th-anniversary-marthas-vineyard.html
And here’s an abridged version of the photo series as it appeared in the Times on July 12, 2025:
