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History

In 2006, Frankie Panky was still just Frank. Sure I had a couple of other pseudonyms... some mantles that I wore in certain circumstances and on certain occasions. People knew me by a few names, but none were yet Frankie Panky. But in 2006, I made a very important realization. While certain individuals in my life insisted that I was creative, the true outlet for that creativity hadn't yet revealed itself to me. Yet that year, I realized that I should be a photographer.

For my whole life, since I was a young child, I had access to cameras and truly enjoyed the experience of capturing images... but "Photography" (specifically with a capital P and in quotes) was the realm of other people. It was a marvelous discipline which required skill that I didn't have, technologies I hadn't mastered, and creativity that I didn't yet feel I possessed. Great examples of photography had been around me for my whole life. Important people, very close to me for my whole life, had intimate connections with photography in their professional and their personal lives. Yet I never felt that was who I should be, until 2006.

During that year, I felt the "click". Call it the click of the shutter, or perhaps the click of inspiration... but that year, I found myself in a place I had been before, seeing amazing sights that I had seen before, having wonderful experiences extremely familiar yet still totally new, that I felt to my soul needed to be preserved. That year I realized that I couldn't ignore the drive any longer, and that this is what I needed to do.

I started acquiring gear, and the technology-smitten geek in me was in heaven. I learned core skills and techniques at a very rapid pace, and the creative soul in me started to find its voice. I started to produce images I could be proud of, and the photographer in me felt approval.

In the years that followed, I found new and exciting avenues for my photography, and through friends and acquaintances I found myself connecting with Vancouver's rapidly expanding burlesque community. These were some people that I could really connect with. Expressive, funny, unabandoned, and warm. These people frequently took the stage not for money (though they'd take what they could get). Not for exhibitionism (though they frequently have that trait in spades). Not for applause (though an appreciating audience's energy can be intoxicating)... Mostly they seemed to take the stage because they felt a drive to be creative, welcomed by such a creative space to play in, and thrilled at the chance to share their inspiration with the people around me.

That subliminally echoed my own journey toward photography, and it didn't take long for me to feel a profound draw to photograph their fun and adventures.

But the story didn't stop there. In the spring of 2009, I was mercilessly encouraged to throw my own hat in the ring and to sample the feel from the other side of my lens. A class to train us menfolk in the more-rarified art of "boylesque" was offered. Boot camp for baring your bootie, some might say... but I shed more than just pants as I took the stage. It gave me a chance to be creative and have fun in a new way that I hadn't ventured near in quite a while... but to do so, I needed a new name.

This would be a name that could echo my personality, be a vessel for my silly ideas, be mask that I could don... or perhaps a true face that I could reveal. Friends were asked, suggestions were collected, lists were long, options were many. But at the top of the list sat my first idea. The most obvious of names. A ridiculous nonsensical moniker fit for nothing greater than schoolyard teasing. It was a throwaway. There to consciously purge the chaff while I dug for the wheat.

Everyone loved it. There was no room for debate.

"Frankie Panky" was the name.

And thus a photographer and performer surfaced as one. A "slashy"... or perhaps "slashie", if you will. I'm not sure which.