Today, I made an effort to organize and declutter the room in our basement that was meant to be my photo studio. Instead, it has become a dumping ground for all manner of items that do not have a permanent home elsewhere. I made significant inroads and cleared an area large enough to facilitate a modest two-strobe lighting setup.

During the course of this work, I came across this photo of my Uncle Ernie with his friend Tony Bennett and a woman whom I do not recognize. Ernie played the guitar professionally and was an accompanist for many famous artists of the day, including Harry Belafonte, Burt Bacharach, Dinah Shore, Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Nana Mouskouri, Miriam Makeba, Steve Allen, Diahann Carroll, Melba Moore, and Eartha Kitt, in addition to Tony Bennett.

Oddly, I feel that I know more about my uncle now than I did when he was alive.