By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

ff.ppdwjinock New. Staff Writer

Charles Tompkins proves that photography is an art form with the exhibit that opens this Sunday at Liz Dubenetz’s Fifth Street Gallery and Frame Shoppe in Warrenton.

From images of Warrenton and Casanova in the mid1%0’s to shots of bluegrass greats and California junk dealers, Tompkins has captured slices of time and bits of the American character.

His photographs illustrate the natural beauty of Fauquier County, his childhood home, and Rappahannock County where he now lives. Forest glades and streams cascading down a mountain hollow make silent appeals for preservation of Piedmont Virginia’s natural resources.

“I guess I’m a conservationist. I want to preserve the beauty that probably won’t be there or certainly will be very altered in the generations to come,’’ he explained. “One of the things about photography that’s always got me is its ability to capture time.’’

Started As A Kid

Tompkins started fooling around with photography as a kid, working on the school newspaper and yearbook at St. Paul’s in Maryland and Hun School in Princeton^ N.J. But his parents, Lalla Rook and Charles H. Tompkins, Jr. of Spring Hill Farm in Casanova, expected their son to be an engineer or a lawyer, not a shutter bug.

“And I wanted to be an artist. It just took me a long time to figure out how to do it,’* Charlie explained.

At first, it was music that fascinated him. “Photography interested me, but it was more of a hobby. It didn’t occur to me to think of it as a serious career until years later. I wanted to be on t the Grand Ol’ Opry—Hank Williams was my idol. He was so different from all the rest. I remember hearing him on the radio. My mother was trying to talk, trying to get my attention, and all I could think of was ‘What sis that?’—It blew me right away!” he said.

Tompkins was just a listener until college but at the University of Miami, both