Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album Of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs [Hardcover]

James Rhem (Editor), Ralph Eugene Meatyard (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2002

Originally published in 1974 by the Jargon Society and long out of print, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater is the best-known body of Ralph Eugene Meatyard's work. At once comic and tragic, grotesque and beautiful, the series of 64 images features his wife, Madelyn, in a hag's Halloween mask together in each with a different friend or relative in a transparent mask. Original copies of this small but seminal work now sell for upwards of $500.00. Critic and scholar James Rhem has worked closely with the archives in the photographer's estate, as well as directly with his surviving family members to reconstruct Meatyard's original, and unrealized, intentions for the publication of this project. As a result, this revised edition features the correct sequencing of images and, most importantly, the missing captions, which, in accordance with Meatyard's instructions, are reproduced in his own handwriting as white type knocked out of a black background. In addition, each surviving participant in the Lucybelle Crater project has been interviewed by Rhem, and the book includes a critical essay and extensive background information. Accompanying the "Album" are 40 more figurative works establishing a context for it and exploring important themes in Meatyard's work. This is an improtant rediscovery in the history of American photography.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ralph Eugene Meatyard was born in 1925 and lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was part of a circle that included the likes of Thomas Merton, Guy Davenport, and Jonathan Williams. Major influences on his photographic work were Aaron Siskind and Minor White, with whom he studied. He died in 1972.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers (June 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024299
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024290
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rhem's Meatyard, October 28, 2002

By 

Roy Arenella - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album Of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs (Hardcover)

In James Rhem's book Meatyard's well-known Lucybelle Crater photographs are reproduced in the family album setting that the photographer himself planned they should have, but never got during his lifetime. The photographs are printed on black pages, with handwritten captions underneath; the images are arranged in groups, & the groups are themselves sequenced. For those who like Meatyard's photography, or acknowledge his significant position in American photography, this new presentation is reason enough to want this book.
But there's a lot more being offered here. First, in an authoritative introduction, Rhem presents an overview of all of Meatyard's photography. This essay is a prelude to and a setting for Rhem's real (and groundbreaking) work: thoroughly researched, original & penetrating elucidation of Meatyard's Lucybelle Crater photographs.
Personally I have had difficulty in understanding what the Lucybelle Crater pictures were about since first seeing them in an earlier version 25 years ago. From comments by friends & other photographers I realized that I was not alone in having this difficulty. We faced page after page of photos of two people, one wearing a hag's mask, the other a mask of an old man. These figures are posed most often against suburban backgrounds that are familiar and mundane. Some pictures are visually interesting, others dull. As you turn the pages the images accumulate, asking be "read". But how? "What's going on here?" was my nagging question. I knew I was missing something important about these pictures. What was it?
Rhem's essay is valuable in answering that question. And what's striking is how he does this and how well he does it. Not with scholarly jargon (though he has the thorough-going mind of a scholar). Not with flights of imaginative "interpretation" based on his own subjective feelings and opinions. And certainly not by calling attention to himself as a critic, biographer or insider (all of which, by the way, he is).
James Rhem works from a dense gathering of factual information about Meatyard--some unknown until now (thanks to Rhem's wide, and thorough investigations into primary sources.) This factual information provides the basis for a conceptual approach to the Lucybelle pictures that is both lively with anecdotes and rich with insights. Rhem has a sincere desire (you can sense it in his sentences) to tell you what he thinks Ralph Eugene Meatyard's photographs are about. He approaches the photographer not as a subject for a thesis but as a man whose pictures continue to have something important to offer us. Rhem has taken up that offer and made it his job in this book to understand and interpret it, using the considerable (and considerably generous) means that he's accumulated for that very purpose.

27 oct 2002

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Last!, September 24, 2002

By 

S. King - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album Of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs (Hardcover)

At last someone has written an extremely intelligent, well researched, and accessible book on Meatyard. Rhem takes on this complex and poignant piece of art, and reveals its mystery to us. As an artist, tired of reading badly written criticism and art-writing, I found this book to be a real gift. I've read most of the available writing on Meatyard and nothing approaches this. A must-buy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening essay on an important photographic artist, May 19, 2003

By 

John W. Galbreath (Libertyville, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album Of Lucybelle Crater And Other Figurative Photographs (Hardcover)

I have always been amazed at the work of Meatyard. I gained more respect for his work and understanding of the man behind the camera in the work published by James Rhem. To know the feelings of all involved in the creation of Meatyard's work adds a greater understanding of this complex man. James Rhem has gone the step beyond to make all who read the book understand the creation of the Lucy Belle Crater Series!

EXCELLENT!