From John Waters' film 'Pecker' to the BMA: Hampden photographer captures everyday Baltimore

The real professional photographer behind the main character's shots in John Waters' film 'Pecker' is a Baltimore native who's worked in Hampden for nearly four decades.

Chuck Shacochis is a used equipment buyer at Service Photo Supply, which staff says is Maryland's only full-service camera shop.

His photography shows the everyday life of people in Baltimore, but he sees the beauty in the overlooked and captures it.

"I kind of want to elevate the things that people don't pay attention to around here just the everyday things, the quiet moments," said Shacochis.

One of his photographs is of a woman who was known in the neighborhood to have a drug problem. She let him photograph her— just not her face.

"I just think it's still an elegant picture of her, even though she was really struggling," he said.

He said she's since died from her addiction, but he was glad to have a fleeting moment with her.

"People that you might just pass by, people that don't get paid attention to, I like to make portraits of those kind of people," said Shacochis.

His photographs are in the Baltimore Museum of Art's exhibition Flashback: Two Centuries of Baltimore Photography. WJZ is a media sponsor.

Shacochis has two pictures in the exhibition. One is an image of a phonebook that had dried after it was left out in the rain.

"It looked like a piece of sculpture to me, sitting on someone's front step," he said. "So, I just stepped in, made two frames and kept going."

The other is of the character "Little Chrissy" in John Waters' 1998 film, 'Pecker.' The movie is centered around an 18-year-old amateur photographer who takes pictures of everyday life in Hampden.

Shacochis was hired to take the photos that the main character, named Pecker, takes in the film. That meant capturing the images during filming.

The one on display at the Baltimore Museum of Art shows Pecker's younger sister, Little Chrissy, played by actress Lauren Hulsey, eating directly out of a Domino Sugar bag and drooling sugar.

"I felt so bad at the end cause she was so tired of having sugar in her mouth and drooling, and I had to have her do it one more time, so I could make a few frames," he said.

Like the main character, many of his own photographs show ordinary life in Hampden.

"The irony was not lost on anybody once they figured out what I was actually doing already," said Shacochis.

Nearly 30 years since the film's release, the professional photographer still has fans stop in the camera shop.

"This guy said to me that the reason he got into photography was after watching Pecker; that was one of the nicest things that anyone could have ever said," he said.

And while the notoriety still feels strange, he says, it's also pretty cool.

"It's just like the gift that keeps on giving, you know," said Shacochis.

Flashback will be up at the BMA until Feb. 21. You can reserve tickets here.