Inducted in 2024
Three-time Emmy-winning cameraman, photojournalist and documentarian, Dave Banks has spent forty years in the field, chronicling the human condition and documenting history. From trekking across the Sahara Desert to climbing and documenting climbing El Cap and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley. Dave has encountered numerous risks in his illustrious career.
Specializing in documenting news and history in remote and hostile locations in the Middle East, Russia, North Africa, and Asia. His client list includes ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News & Sports, Warner Brothers, Discovery Channel, Cosmos Studios, The History Channel, PBS, Channel Nine Australia, London Weekend Television-UK, BBC 1 & 2, NHK Japan, German Television, and Canal Television-France.
In 1999, Dave filmed the one-hour documentary ‘The Quest for Noah’s Ark’. Aware of the ‘off limits’ status for access to Mt. Ararat by the Turkish government, Dave set out under the cover of darkness and climbed to the 16,984-foot summit of Mt. Ararat.
As part of the ‘War on Terrorism’ television series in 2001, Dave served as a solo journalist in Afghanistan for ‘Profiles from the Front Lines’. This 13-hour documentary was produced by Profiles Television in association with the Department of Defense and Warner Bros.
The Discovery Channel contracted Dave to direct a multi-million dollar, five-hour, primetime epic Eco-Challenge Australia, New Zealand and to setup the course for Eco-Challenge Morocco. In addition, Dave covered the French Marathon des Sable a 151 mile race in Morocco’s Sahara Desert.
In spite of Dave’s dyslexia he wrote about his adventures and misadventures in his book Cue the Camels. Foreword by Jay Leno which Dave also freelanced as a cameraman for the Tonight Show.
“Dave’s disappearing and reappearing act had been going on since I took over the Tonight Show. It wasn’t until reading Cue the Camels that I learned that Dave was booking out of my show. Maybe that’s why Dave always seemed to have a smile on his face – that’s because he was just happy to be where he wasn’t being shot at, chased by a foreign army, or lost in a land mine field – I like to think that it was my jokes and free coffee that kept a smile on Dave’s face.” -Jay Leno
