Saturday, March 7, 2009

He will be celebrating his 100th birthday this year and still active...His name is Ralph Gregory, lives in Marthasville, Missouri and is known around those parts as "The Historian".

I mentioned before with "Clara's" post about the working German Heritage farm. Each year The Historian is there answering questions, spinning tales of the German settlers and is truly one the most interesting people I have ever met. My wife is of German heritage and she has several books from the 1800's that her family brought over when they immigrated to America. In this picture, he is holding, reading and translating one of her books for us.

We have this 18x26 photograph hanging in our home in honor of "The Historian". A breed of immigrants quickly becoming a vanishing part of the American Landscape.

6 comments:

~ Denise ~ said...

History perfectly captures. Nice job, Dan! ;)

Dan Felstead said...

Thanks Denise, he truly is living history.

Dan

Lynda Lehmann said...

It's a riveting photo, Dan, with the perspective and the tilt of his hat. The subdued and limited coloring makes it more riveting.

It has a nostalgic feeling to it, even maybe a feeling of antiquity--a good marriage of image to concept.

Dan Felstead said...

Thanks Lynda,

I always look forward to your comments from a technical perspective. I like your idea of marrying the image to the concept. I always learn something from your posts.
Thanks,
Dan

Sunny said...

I love this simple and elegant photograph.

Dan Felstead said...

Thanks Sunny.

Dan