Picture Taker Photographs by Ken Elkins

Award-winning photographer Ken Elkins captures indelibly the lives and landscapes of rural Alabama. "I look at the black-and-white of a revival, at an old man in overalls kneeling as the hand of the evangelist rests on his head, as an old woman sobs in the background, her hands clasped, and I no longer question the power of faith. I see a gang of urchins walking a railroad track barefoot, and I remember how to be a boy. I see an old man in crooked suspenders shuffle hump-backed through a gate, tools in his hand, and I know what I want to do and be when my time is almost over. And I see a railroad track in the mist, one of those tracks that offers a way out of this, an escape from this isolation and poverty and inertia, and I know why so many people never leave. Because Elkins shows the reasons to stay."--from the Foreword by Rick Bragg "Ken is a master journalist with a camera, reporting on the people of the countryside as great photographers always have--with images that rise to the level of art. He and his work are alike--humane in a quietly heroic way."--Chris Waddle, Vice President for News at the Anniston Star, from the Afterword by Basil PennyBragg, Rick is the author of 'Picture Taker Photographs by Ken Elkins', published 2005 under ISBN 9780817314781 and ISBN 0817314784.