The Anniston Star du lieu suivant : Anniston, Alabama • Page 51

Gallery Clje JVmttstiut tar Summer 2000 Page 1 7 t. I -v, v'i 'if i rnmiii' .1 AI .:2 m---V 'J 4' A i r- i Ernest Mostella of Ashville. 1990s Ken Elkins never appeared on the silver screen, but with his trusty camera and photographer's eye for detail he developed a 0 JJ- IX. By Basil Penny One could never say that Ken Elkins has been a one-dimensional photographer. He's shot all the presidents back to Eisenhower, Alabama governors during the past 40 years, Billy Graham and Walt a lousy painter," he said, laughing at his jab at Elkins' passion to produce on a canvas and board what he does so expertly ith a camera.

Elkins met Martin. Smith of Clay County at the Red Barn music hall, where she came dressed as Minnie Pearl. He remembers Willard Watson as a toy maker and master storyteller of 1 -A Disney among the well-known. "They're not as important as some of the others I shot, people like Ernest Mostella Martha Smith Pinky Burns Willard Watson James Lindsey Mose Tolliver Abe Jackson," said Elkins, preparing to snap the lens cover on a long career as photojournalism "I'll stack any of these people up against the presidents. They're just salts of the earth, but great people." Salisbury.

N.C. He focused on Pinky Burns as an outdoorsman and folk icon in the Rabbittown community. Montgomery artist Mose To I liver's work intrigued him. He did a photo feature on Lineville turtle hunter James Lindsey. Abe Jackson of Millerville has been in his viewfind-er several times picking peas on Jericho Road and once years ago when authorities busted up his moonshine still.

'HP 1r Larry MartinSpecial to tne Star He's photographed presidents, governors and Si Elkins retired as The Star's even Billy Graham, but Ken Elkins, center, says Ernest Mostella, 94. of Ashville may chief photographer on his 65th fj8. thhse llkl Ches be his favorite, thouch. For 84 vears, McCartney (The Goat Man), right, and his son. birthday, July 27, ending 42 years Gene.

"They're great people." Mostella has made primitive fiddles, in the newspaper industry. His whose strings are cotton cord pulled career began in 1958 at The Huntsville Times. He joined tight by wooden winding keys. The instruments are a main The Anniston Star in 1971. revenue source for the 1st.

Clair County man. X.4 Elkins bought a fiddle when he did pictures for a story in The Star years ago. Every time he's in the vicinity, he checks on Mostella and buys another fiddle. He added No. 1 1 to his collection a few weeks ago.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with all of 'em," he Ple.ise see Elkins Gallery Page 8 "I knew I was talking to a pro, maybe even a genius in the first interview, when I noticed him crooking his head from side to side," said Brandt Ayers, The Star's publisher. "At first, I thought he had a tick. What he told me was he was looking at everything through a viewfinder. "He was the photographer who was alwavs on duty and alert to everything, and everything was of interest. But he's Marie Buchannon in Choccolocco Creek.

1988.