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You know when you’re invited to a really boring person’s slide night and it’s the worst invite you could ever get? Those situations where you would rather break bottles over your own head and then slowly swallow all the glass shards? When you have to sit through a hundred slides of the most boring places in the world and you kinda wish you could pick up the slide machine and smash it over the host’s face? Ricky Powell‘s World Famous Slideshow was nothing like that.

If you missed the show at Rancho Notorious last night presented by Puma, you didn’t miss JUST a slideshow, you missed an entire Ricky Powell experience. Repping Puma to the fullest, Ricky was wearing a pair of his ‘Ricky Powell, NYC Street Photography’ shoes he did with Puma back in 2007. He later changed into a pair of Puma Clydes (his ‘game shoes’) for the show, that were signed by the man who made them famous in the 70s, the New York Knicks’ Walt Frazier.

The legendary photographer is every bit the powerhouse of aura you would expect him to be: loud, extroverted, welcoming. Pre-slideshow, the New Yorker chatted and mingled with the crowd and flirted with pretty much every girl there, all while signing prints for avid fans. But as the lights dimmed and all eyes were on The Rickster, the man became a bigger star than he already was.

Every single image had a story, not just a story but a slice of the life of one of the most interesting characters from NYC. His stories about The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Sofia Coppola and various women he got in the sack (or at least tried to) kept the crowd glued to the screen. His quips (“I was actually tripping on dust right there”, “That’s a pussy that got away”, “I didn’t like their music, they’re alright…next” [in response to a pic of Sonic Youth], “Rakim was on my dick”), smart-ass commentary and down-to-earth demeanour probably made everyone in the room feel kinda lucky to be there.

Ricky Powell will be participating in Visual Saturation, the fourth forum of the Carbon 2012 Festival this weekend. Check the Carbon website for all the details

Images by the very awesome Craig Johnstone. Peep his other blog Kompound also, for more eye candy.