Meatyard, Gene to his friends, was from Normal, IL. Which I think is just fun. The Album of Lucybelle Crater was his most well known and shot in the two years preceding his death in '72. This group is a series of portraits of his wife posing with people who moved within his immediate circles of friends and family. When Gene approached his friends about these photos the wife of one of his colleagues (he was an optometrist) thought that his cancer medication might have made him loose his marbles, she had no imagination. Oh also, they are all wearing masks-- a recurring element in his photographs. Check out the rest of his work.
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| Meatyard and his wife. |
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| Meatyard's family |
First off, let me just say that I think this guy has a fantastic name for this line of photography.
ReplyDeleteI thought I would find these shots really unnerving but I actually love them. It reminds me of a poem called "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. check it out. These photos to a great job of exhibiting that even among our closest friends and relatives we wear masks. I mean, can you ever really know somebody, even yourself? Props to Meatyard on making such beautiful, disconcerting photographs of such everyday things.
-Sophia
These photos are absolutely badass, excuse my french. What is absolutely outstanding about this series, is that even with his sickness, he continued to deliver his perceptions of the world through his work.
ReplyDeleteThese photos are wild, theres so much range within the eight photos you chose. Babies and Dolls, when staring at me, freak me out but I like the intensity of each of the photos, not trying to be subtle. I love how he represents flaws
ReplyDeletethese shots all have a really creepy, old time feel to them, but they have such well placed content. doest seem contrived
ReplyDeleteI love Meatyard but I know him mainly for his work with masks. I am interested in seeing your work because I know you focused on other work that he did with his family members. He had such a knack for capturing the dark and disturbing, I'm sure it was really fun to try and capture that yourself,
ReplyDeleteI commented on the wrong one last time, so here's a real comment.
ReplyDeleteI've always loved the different sorts of symbolism masks can have in photography/other art, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you did with it. These all have a rather creepy feel to them, especially the ones with children in them.