Watch a short documentary of The Richard Hambleton Retrospective featuring the photography of Hank O'Neal at Phillips de Pury , New York City from September 9 through the 13th, 2011 presented by Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld and Andy Valmorbida in collaboration with Phillips De Pury & Giorgio Armani.  Click here   Hank's photographs of Richard Hambleton as featured in the June issue of Bliss Magazine.  Download the PDF here: Bliss article   Hank's latest show: Portraits 1970-2010 at The Lancaster Museum of Fine Art. This one man photographic exhibition features noted portraits Hank has taken over the last four decades.  The show will run through February 27th.  For more information please visit the museums web site here: http://www.lmapa.org/exh.html Hank's Portrait of Robert Indiana during his reception at the Four Season's Restaurant in New York City, featured in Art in America: http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/news/2011-01-26/robert-indiana-hope-four-seasons/ Hank's Photographs of Richard Hambleton's Shadow Men on display @ The Dairy, London:  http://arrestedmotion.com/2010/12/viewpoints-openings-richard-hambleton-pop-up-show-the-dairy-london/img_3876_p-nguyen/   Hank's photography graced the facade of the AMFAR pavillion, Cap D'Atibes France, May 20, 2010 C-Span July 2010 —The American Association of University Professors, features The Ghosts Of Harlem American Edition as one of it's choices for The "Best of The Best" University Editions. "The Best of The Bests" Program program, offers librarians the opportunity to share advice and recommendations with their colleagues, and recognizes the valuable contribution that university press books can make to both public and secondary school libraries. (note:The Ghosts of Harlem feature begins at 11:40 and ends at 14:40) :Please Have a look at the video here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/294474-1 Jazz Times Interview June 2010 — Hank O’Neal: Chasing Ghosts ArtNews Article, March 2010, Friendships In Focus - Berenice Abbott, PDF Hank O'Neal's Lower East Side Project Featured On Swiss T.V. Seventh Man Magazine - "Richard Hambleton — New York" in Milan Featured Artist on Valmorbida.com Artists We Love, Featured Photographs of Richard Hambleton Street Art Swide, Hank O'Neal's Portraits of Richard Hambleton, showing in Milan oneartworld.com - Featuring Hank O'Neal's Richard Hambleton Related Prints for Sale Abitare - Richard Hambleton in Milan featuring a portrait by Hank O'Neal

In the mid to late 1980s, Dizzy Gillespie was part of the Floating Jazz Festival for five consecutive years, 1984-88. He was very busy in those years, always on the road. I used to joke with him that he stayed out because his wife, Lorraine, didn’t want him at home with his unruly friends. I, of course was one of those unruly friends, and was always ushered straight to the basement when I visited Dizzy at his home in Englewood, New Jersey.

Sometimes Dizzy’s schedule permitted him to be on board for a week, sometimes two, and other times he’d have a split week; he’d board the ship in St. Thomas and leave from the same island the following week. On one occasion he had to board the ship in St. Thomas and leave four days later in Miami. This is what happened in 1986.

James Moody boarded the S/S Norway in Miami and made it clear he wanted to go with me to pick up Dizzy in St. Thomas. Dizzy would be arriving on his 69th birthday, and he wanted to be the first person to greet his old friend and mentor. It worked out perfectly, the plane landed on time, Dizzy’s luggage also arrived on time and as Dizzy left the plane and walked towards the glorified hanger that served as a terminal in those years, he was almost tackled by Moody, who somehow had managed to add some children to his entourage.

We made our way to a waiting tender to be transported to the ship and I told Dizzy about the birthday celebrations we had planned, a gala concert with Moody, Milt Jackson, Clark Terry, Joe Williams, cakes and balloons. He was in a good mood and was even happier when the bumpy tender ride ended and he was able to walk up the gangway and board the ship. Moody was tagging along in back and at one point grabbed Dizzy. Dizzy looked in my direction and I took a picture. It was on the front of JazzTimes a month or so later and became the poster for the 1987 festival, when Dizzy was once again on board. He had to sign so many posters he complained of writer’s cramp. The only time he ever complained about anything all the years I knew him. It is one of my favorite photographs.