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Sunday, April 15, 2012
The Anniston Star
K e n e l k i n s : p i c t u res a n d st o ries To them, he was just the picture-taker
Pa g e 4
By Rick Bragg
PEOPLE Pages 5-7, 9-11
A legacy in black and white
Pa g e 8
By Basil Penny
The magic of an Elkins moment By David Cummings
Pa g e 12 - 13
A
children Pages 14-17
animals Pages 18-19
color Pages 20-21
news Pages 22-23
thousand words. Each picture contained in this special section marking the passing of longtime Anniston Star photographer Ken Elkins must be worth at least that many words. Elkins, who passed away April 12 at age 76, spent more than 40 years capturing scenes of rural Alabama. Each of his photographs sets a scene, evokes an emotion, captures a slice of life in the rural South. This is community journalism, capturing life and times in their context. Elkins had the Southerner’s gift of storytelling; the difference is his camera did the talking. Like life itself, Elkins’ work covered the ups and downs of Alabama. The images here can produce a chuckle, a gasp, a resigned sigh, a slackened jaw and more expressions than one might think possible with black-and-white pictures. We present this collection as a tribute to our acclaimed colleague, but more importantly as a reminder of what The Star aspires to do daily: tell the stories of our community. That’s what Elkins the picture-taker was ever doing. H. Brandt Ayers, The Star’s publisher, recalls Elkins’ job interview: “It didn’t take long to discover that Ken would be one of the very best. For his job interview I took him to the old Annistonian. As we talked at lunch, Ken’s head would cock and crane, tilting from one side to the other. In mild alarm that he might be suffering from a neurological affliction, I asked, ‘Are you all right?’ He replied, ‘Sorry, I just have a habit of seeing everything through a view finder.’ “Right then I knew he was a photographer who would be on duty every hour of every day. For him, photography was not a vocation but a passion. My next comment was, ‘You’re hired.’ ” —The Editors