David Walter Banks

My Waking Life

The same surreal fantastical images that we find in our dream life can be found all around us if we simply stop and look. These are some of those serendipitous moments I've had the fortune to notice.

A lone figure stands amongst the trees in a rest stop off Interstate 85 in South Carolina.
   
Hat shaping at the rodeo in Augusta, Ga.
   
Sunset on the black sand beach: Monterrico, Guatemala.
     
  
Feminist author and poet Alice Walker speaks inside Busboys and Poets on 14th Street near the intersection of U Street in Washington D.C., on the day before the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States.
   
A pedestrian shrouded in her umbrella walks by the mural painted on the Georgia Theatre on East Clayton Street in downtown Athens, Ga., on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
  
Siera Dennis, left, serves cocktails as Ellen Bargeron, in white hat, walks by at the Jeannette Rankin Foundation's celebration of its 30th anniversary at the High Hat Tea & Silent Auction of items donated by artists, restaurants and local businesses. The event benefited the Jeannette Rankin Foundation which is an organization designed to assist mature, low-income women who are motivated to change their lives through education by awarding these women grants to help them toward their goal.
     
  
Hayden Vernelson has high functioning autism. His mother Latitia Vernelson has made significant strides through home schooling, but he still has some trouble interacting with the other children his age. According to a study released by the Center for Disease Control, autism affects approximately 1 in every 150 children.
   
Monica, aka. Honey, owner of Go 2 Girl Promotions, dances on stage at the Blue Flame strip club in Atlanta. Monica is part of the new practice of breaking hip hop records in strip clubs before the songs ever hit the airwaves. Rap artists pay Honey and the other dancers with Go 2 Girl Promotions to dance to their songs exclusively on stage as a way to promote new albums.
   
A pedestrian is reflected in the window of Planet Smoothie on College Avenue in Athens, Ga. Freezing rain which lasted through the night caused the University of Georgia to close for the day.
     
  
A pedestrian walks his bike down Jackson Street in downtown Athens, Ga., on a sunny Monday afternoon.
   
Doors of Perception
   
Lauren Ekstein hikes through the woods in Athens, Ga. in the Whitehall Forest.
     
  
Poseidon's Palace : Tybee Island, Ga.
   
Children scatter through clouds of smoke as they light firecrackers on the street which are followed by a religious processional around the Parque Central: Antigua, Guatemala.
   
The world looked on as NBC released images which the 23-year-old killer Cho Seung-Hui sent in a package to the network between the two shootings which left 32 students, faculty and staff dead in Blacksburg, Va. In the tapes the killer revealed grandiose delusions of martyrdom, comparing himself with Jesus Christ.
     
  
Angel at the House on Ponce.