Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary [Paperback]

Rizzoli (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This catalog of a major traveling exhibition is the most comprehensive treatment and the first major survey of the work of photographer Meatyard (1925-72) since the books and exhibitions that appeared soon after his death. For the last 22 years of his life, Meatyard, a practicing optician in Lexington, Kentucky, made pictures that were uniquely photographic and unmanipulated except for his fondness for the directorial mode: props, masks, and posing. These unique images, all made in Kentucky, are mysterious, frightening, and imbued with literary and philosophical allusions. Excellent reproductions accompany essays by his lifelong friends Van Deren Coke and Wendell Berry. Akron Art Museum curator Tannenbaum analyzes the thematic periods in his work, while David L. Jacobs (art, Univ. of Houston) discusses Meatyard's working methods and critical reception. Recommended for photography collections.
- Kathleen Collins, Great Barrington, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (August 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847813754
• ISBN-13: 978-0847813759
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,587,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Photographic Visionary, June 17, 2011

By 

B. Foor "iPod Junkie" (VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary (Paperback)

Meatyard's work challenged most of the cultural and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photography could and should be. His work sprang from the beauty of ideas rather than ideas of the beautiful. Wide reading in literature (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially Zen) stimulated his imagination. While others roamed the streets searching for America and truth, Meatyard haunted the world of inner experience, continually posing unsettling questions about our emotional realities through his pictures. Once again, however, he inhabited this world quite differently from other photographers exploring inner experience at the time.