Days 2 & 3 were a working whirlwind, but I had a gust of energy behind me after a night with Valerie June.

Killed the pitch, met agency leadership, treated another team to lunch, mentored a junior, and still had time to text my old friend @reallouismendes.

Back in 2022, we met in Bryant Park when I tried to take a picture of him and move on, but got acquainted with the legend instead.

He’d texted me months later to ask for the picture he’d taken of me. But there wasn’t one. We’d gotten too caught up in conversation.

So a year and a half later, I decided to shoot my shot, short notice and all.

And wouldn’t you know it, not only was Louis free, he lived mere blocks from my hotel.

He shuffled up 44th Street on a cold, wet, and gray Friday morning, with his trusty 1940s Speed Graphic camera shining like a lantern.

If I thought I was the only person who broke into a silly smile at the sight of him, the next few hours proved me sorely mistaken. Between his vintage cameras and impeccable style, strangers absolutely gravitate to Louis.

We rode the 2 Train from Times Square to Harlem for breakfast at Jimbo’s Hamburger Palace. From the station to the breakfast table and everywhere in between, I sat front row to the Louis Mendes Show.

“Hey, man, that’s a dope camera!” a young Latino man shouted from a car at a corner we crossed.

“WHAAAAAAT?! NO WAY!” A Lululemon soccer mom exclaimed from a train platform as she snapped as many pictures of him as she could before the doors shut.

And everywhere we went, he lifted my soul with New York’s stories, too. How the mosaic tile leading down to Times Square station was original, the irony of the Harlem Hospital once being segregated, how he’d met James Van Der Zee and even attended Gordon Parks’ funeral.

Like…

I asked his favorite places to take pictures. “Anywhere I can make money,” he retorted. (Louis has a witty response for just about everything, I quickly learned.)

But after breakfast, he said he’d take me to his favorite rainy day spot: Grand Central Station, one of my favorites too.

That’s where I finally got my picture.

And a couple of invitations to way, way more…