- Mike Disfarmer
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Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959) was an American photographer whose portraits of everyday people in rural Arkansas became regarded as art some years after his death.
Born Mike Meyer, he changed his surname to "Disfarmer" possibly to break with his family's agrarian roots, the first move in a maverick career that embraced both obscurity and a rigorous aesthetic.[citation needed] Disfarmer maintained a portrait studio in his hometown of Heber Springs, Arkansas, and photographed members of the local community for small fees.[citation needed] But his "penny portraits" were far more than mere keepsake photographs. Employing a stark realism and often lengthy, unnervingly mute sitting sessions, Disfarmer produced a consistent stream of portraits that strip his subjects into an uncanny intimacy.[citation needed] His photographs capture the essence of a particular community in a particular time with piercing solemnity and a touching simplicity. His reclusive lifestyle has left many details of his life obscure or uncertain.
A large cache of negatives shot by Disfarmer were found in the 1970s in Heber Springs by Peter Miller who spent a year on a bicentennial grant cleaning, preserving and cataloguing the negatives. Subsequently, two exhibitions of Disfarmer's own prints were held.[1]
In 2008, a picture of Disfarmer was used on the 80th Academy Awards telecast as the alleged portrait of Roderick Jaynes, the film editing pseudonym of the Coen brothers, who was nominated at that ceremony for editing the Coens' film No Country for Old Men.[2] Disfarmer's photo was supplied to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by the Coens after Jaynes' nomination.[3]
He was the subject of a puppet-theater production in New York in 2009.[1] His life was an inspiration for guitarist Bill Frisell, who was commissioned by the Wexner Center for the Arts to write the score to accompany a retrospective of Disfarmer's work. Frisell visited Disfarmer's home town of Heber Springs, Arkansas and created an album "Disfarmer" [4].
His gravesite has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
References
- ^ a b Isherwood, Charles (2 February 2009). "An Eccentric Existence: Ice Cream, Beer and Art". The New York Times. http://theater2.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/theater/reviews/02disf.html. Retrieved 2 February 2009.
- ^ Smith, Kyle (24 February 2008). "Another Montage and the Roderick Jaynes Question". KyleSmithOnline.com. http://kylesmithonline.com/?p=1011. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (11 September 2008). "Those Coen boys, what kidders". RogerEbert.com. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080911/ANSWERMAN/809119974/-1/RSS. Retrieved 5 March 2010.
- ^ "Bill Frisell: 2009: album ″Disfarmer″". Nonesuch.com. http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/disfarmer.
External links
- Official photo sales website
- Disfarmer (Public Pictures), (Documentary)
- Photomart Images, (Database)
Categories:- 1884 births
- 1959 deaths
- American photographers
- People from Cleburne County, Arkansas
- American photographer stubs
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