Will She Be There?

I just read in Yahoo News, and you can too - go here, that veteran photographer Gary Leonard is going to do a cool stunt by creating a photo he'll call a "Great Day in LA" -- paying home to a shot by the late, great Art Kane, who shot one called "A Great Day in Harlem."

A few words about that.... cool idea!

I know we photographers back in the day, did always shoot some "class" pictures on the street and whatever -- I ran across some negatives of such things from Chinatown where I captured whoever was playing at both Madame Wong's and the Hong Kong Cafe. I also took a lot of group, hanging out and backstage "class pictures," at the Whisky (which was sort of my mission while working there), Madame Wong's West and the streets.

Once I stop moving long enough to spend some time in a darkroom, I'll runb with this inspiration and show off some "class pictures."

This one of Belinda Carlisle backstage at the Whisky, you have seen before, and you can buy this photo in the online store if you like.

Wonder if she will show up for the class picture? Probably not, but you never know.

Since he was name-checked in the Yahoo story, I must put in my own words of praise for the late Art Kane, who unbeknownst to me was my neighbor in Gramercy Park prior to his death.

Art's son, drummer extraordinaire, Jonathan Kane came to me when I worked at VH1 and we organized a documentary about rock photography that featured his work. Jonathan was kind enough to gift me with an estate-stamped bonafide Art Kane print of his famous shot of the The Who snoozing under the Union Jack. Jonathan also gave me some killer color xeroxes of Keith Richards and Brian Jones - each with postage stamps bearing The Queen's image. I think they had her between their teeth.

If you should ever stumble upon a volume of Art Kane photos, do stop and spend lots of time with them. They are classics.