BARRY THUMMA Amish Walk in Nature, c. 1970s. 7.3x19.1" gelatin silver print mounted on 16 x 20" black board. Printed c. 1970s. Inscribed on recto: 55-FTR. Salon label and typed description adhered: "You can still hear your foot-steps crunching into the gravel, in some parts of the Lancaster, (Pa.) County. Buggies are rare, cars even rarer visitors to this leisurely road. Here the sound of your voice is so unchallenged by other sounds it seems unnaturally unhealthy. Industry squats on the horizon tucked safely away from the couple alone. And, except for an occasional photographer, the privacy of this Amish couple is undiluted."

Barry L. Thumma was born in 1947. He graduated in 1965 from Penn Manor High School and attended Millersville University.

Thumma was an Associated Press photographer, who covered four presidents. In his 20-year career with the AP, he traveled on more than 100 Air Force One flights to photograph presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He also photographed Pope John Paul II, Jerry Falwell, Mikhail Gorbachev, Michael Deaver, Alan Greenspan, and Donald Rumsfeld, among other personalities and politicians of his time. He was a member of the White House News Photographers Association.

Thumma began his career in 1967 as a part-time photographer for the Lancaster New Era. He joined the Associated Press in 1973 in Cincinnati, where he covered the Reds and the Bengals. After two years as the Ohio photo editor, Thumma moved to Washington, DC to cover the White House. He also captured heartbreaking images of the famine in Ethiopia, NASA space flight operations, and troop actions in the field.

He retired from the Washington bureau in 1993 after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma and died from its complications on November 25, 2003. He was 56.

Very good. Minor scratching on print surface.