Sunday, March 9, 2008

Hayward Historical Society, Ron Partridge photo show, "From the Byways to the Highways"

We had a blast. Despite huge changes in Hayward, my dad was able to get me to the Historical Society Building. He's one of those people who can still remember how things looked years ago and run a commentary on all the changes. I was hoping we'd pass Eddie Badiati's place, but we didn't. (This guy is legendary in my dad's mind for hot dipping all parts of his car's engine in chrome when they were teenagers and cars were God.)

The evening was terrific. Great group of enthusiastic people showed up, and my dad was funny, encouraging and inspiring. Thanks to Jeanine Sidran, Education Director, and all her crew, and the board members who made our evening.

Pictures of the evening say it best: (first photo by me, second Jeanine Sidran, and last three by Thomas Taylor. Thanks for sending them to me!)

3 comments:

Thomas said...

Hi Elizabeth,

Many thanks to you, Ron, and everyone else involved in making this event happen. It was a real privilege and an inspiration to meet and hear a photographer so intimately connected with the history of photography
- especially that of California photography. He truly is "the last man standing." That said, Ron's current work as shown in the film looks even "better."

Tell Ron that I have resolved to take his advise to "shoot" (he wrote that in large print on the inside cover page of my book) every day. Yesterday, for example, I shot 3 rolls of 120 at the Carnival across from the Oakland Colisuem and I'm off in a couple of minutes with the 4x5.

Thomas Taylor

Elizabeth Partridge said...

Yep, Ron's now been around for a large part of the history of photography.
He's definitely walking history!
And it sounds like you are going full-out on the photography! Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

I love the photo of your dad's hands, pen waiting while he tells a story...which is itself a story. For him it's not about signing and fame; it's about taking pictures and telling stories.