In the last years of Herb Ringer’s life, he began to lose his eyesight from macular degeneration. There were many photographs he wanted to caption but blindness had stopped him. But Herb was convinced he would remember the photos, if only someone would describe them to him. So, for days, Herb and I poured over the old pictures—I would describe the scene and, almost always, he would remember.
That was the case here. “Herb,” I said, “here are some photos of you and two girls on horseback, and in one picture, one of the girls is under her horse.”
Herb smiled. “Yes…yes, I remember her. Her name was Skippy and she was spending the summer in Virginia City. She bet me dinner that she could crawl under her horse’s front legs. As the photo shows, she earned herself a steak.”
HERB RINGER came West from his home in New Jersey in 1939. Camera in hand, Herb captured the American West, from the Canadian Border to the Rio Grande and from the Big Sur coast to the High Plains.
We believe Herb’s collection of Life in the West is one of the finest. His work has been published in The Zephyr for 20 years. I am pleased finally, to offer Herb’s photographs in color. We are also building a new ‘album’ of his work, elsewhere on this site.
My dear friend died on December 11, 1998…JS
For the Most Comprehensive Collection of Herb Ringer Photographs Online, Click Here to see the Herb Ringer Issue of the Zephyr.
To see the PDF version of this page, click here.
To comment, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Don’t forget the Zephyr ads! All links are hot!
