Here’s the story on this series of photos: I was in the LES (Manhattan) during CMJ shooting street scenes between sets at The Cake Factory and other clubs, when this guy comes out of a pizza place holding a $.99 slice, blurting out “Take my picture”! ( repeatedly, till he caught my attention). “I’m Kenny Banks”! I don’t know who Kenny Banks is, but this guy seems to think I should. He carefully places his slice of pizza in his car, an older, black Mercedes, and walks up to me and says, again: “take my picture with my car”! So, why not, I will play along. People around us are stopping and wondering just what is going on and why is this guy is loudly barking out “Take my picture”. I quickly take a few shots of him as he goes through this set of gestures. When I am finished shooting he goes back in the car, as I think we are done, and comes back with a CD and business card which states he is really “Kenny Banks”. He goes on to explain that he recorded with Kool and The Gang way back when and actually did some writing and background vocals for that group. He asked that I send him copies of the photos, which I did after I got home in Seattle. I emailed him files of the above photos and have not, to this date, heard back from him. He currently his a part of this group called The Rhythm Makers which do a lot of gigs around NY.

I debated with myself about doing this post for a couple of months. I finally decided last night that maybe the time was right. Tomorrow I will post some of the images I was actually shooting when Kenny Banks briefly passed through my life :-).