Meatyard Landscapes

[Struan Gray]

I don't know what sort of camera Ralph Eugene Meatyard used, but I hope the Tuan and the moderators will indulge me if I sneak in a question about him at LFinfo: people here seem more interested in and knowledgeable about photography in general than the other forums I frequent.

I've been reading the Phaidon 55 on Meatyard and among the mask and kids pictures I knew he was famous for was an intriguing winter landscape that the text states was explicitly influenced by abstract impressionism, particularly Pollock. I had one of those 'yippee, someone else does this sort of thing too' moments, since I have been making landscapes and other images with a strong calligraphic component, with the abstract painters of the 40s and 50s as a major compositional inspiration.

I would like to see more of these sorts of images, and the lights-on-water ones, and the multiple exposures, and the zen twigs - but where to go? I would really appreciate any recommendations of places or publications where I can see more of Meatyard's landscapes. Of the books which are fairly available (the Aperture monograph, "Americal visionary", "Unforseen wilderness"), can anyone say which has the best selection of this sort of photograph? Are there any other Meatyard resources I should look at?

Now before the peanut gallery get started: inter-library loan is incredibly slow and expensive for me, and postage charges and/or snippy european booksellers make buy and return a non-option. Essentially, I have to buy and keep any photography books I wish to look at, so asking here is isn't just an attempt to avoid my local library or the amazon website.

[Gem Singer]

From the peanut gallery:

I just did a google search, entered the name Ralph E. Meatyard. Literally hundreds of referrences popped up. Looks like a good place to begin your search for Meatyard's landscapes.

[austin granger]

I'm afraid this isn't a direct response to your question, but if you like Meatyard (I do very much myself) you might also check out Frederick Sommer, Clarence John Laughlin, and also Aaron Siskind.

[austin granger]

Oh, sorry, I forgot to add that I have this huge tome called "A New History Of Photograhy" edited by Michel Frizot that has a chapter entitled; "Beyond Reality-the Subjective Vision" with photos by Meatyard, as well as the other photographers I mentioned, among others.

[Brian Ellis]

I'm not familiar with Meatyard's work other than the masks but for double exposures I think Harry Callahan was one of the best, ditto for somewhat offbeat landscapes. The book "Harry Callahan" published by Bullfinch Press, ISBN 0-8212-2727-0, has a lot of his photographs as well as interesting text by Sarah Greenough. The paperback version sold for about $30 through Amazon a couple years ago, you probably can find one used there for less.

[Kevin M Bourque]

I remember reading that he used a Mamiya TLR. He may have used other cameras, of course.

[Kirk Gittings]

I believe he used a twin lens rollie. There was a traveling exhibit of his landscapes around two summers ago. I saw it at the Chicago Cultural Center. You might contact them.

[Frank Petronio]

Would have been hard to double-expose a Rollei TLR...

[jim Ryder]

The Unforeseen Wilderness, Kentucky's Red River Gorge by Meatyard and Wendell Berry Northpoint press San Francisco 1991

[Frank Lahorgue]

A dumb question:

Meatyard's name is only in my reading vocabulary, so how on earth does one pronounce the name properly?

[domenico Foschi]

I like his work a lot myself. I remember reading that he had no running water in his darkroom, and that he had to bring buckets to fill the trays ...

[Kirk Gittings]

Frank,

Most of the work that I saw seemed to be sandwiched negatives.

[Sam Osborne]

Perhaps more readily available than the Red River Gorge book already mentioned is a retrospective organized by the University of Akron and edited by Barbara Tannenbaum (ISBN:0847813746), called Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary. It's a very nice overview of his work, including a bunch of the landscapes as well as the Lucybelle Crater photographs and others. Look on abebooks.com or alibris.com for that one or the Aperture monograph from 1974.

[Paul Butzi]

Several points of interest:

1. Unless my memory is failing me entirely, the Rollieflex has a interlock to prevent double exposures, but you can move a dial to release the interlock and cock the shutter without advancing the film - and thus make multiple exposures of a single negative. The same is true for the Minolta Autocord rollie clone, and probably for the Mamiya TLR as well. I have absolutely no idea if Meatyard used a Rolleiflex, a Mamiya, or an Autocord.

2. Despite what the art history pundits say about Meatyard's alienation from society, he was apparently quite a family man, devoted to his wife and kids, and he was also very close friends with the theologian Thomas Merton, who was also a fairly decent photographer.

[Jim_3565]

He was also a protege of Henry Holmes Smith, who was right up the road at Indiana University. Thomas Merton (Brother Louis to his fellow Trappists), was a monk who wrote books on (mostly) Catholic spirituality and mysticism. I wouldn't characterize him as a theologian. His books were brilliant. His photography was awful, at least to these eyes. Apparently Meatyard spent a lot of time at Gethsemane. His work always stimulated a mystical nerve in me, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. I guess he was just wired into some sort of eternal energy.

[austin granger]

Meatyard was close friends with Thomas Merton? As a graduate of a philosophy/religious studies program who later turned to photography, I can't tell you how much that blows my mind! Wow. Thanks for the revelation.

[pico]

As I recall, dimly, he used a TLR of the Rollei type. It's been a long time. I met him shortly before he passed away.

[Struan Gray]

Many thanks for the responses and especially the book suggestions. I'll add the lot to the list I send Santa every year. "American Visionary" will get stars and strong hints, for the essays as much as the photography.

Siskind has become my comfort food: he's a box of rich dark truffles hidden in the bedside cabinet for raiding at lowest ebb. But most of his abstract subjects were two dimensional or pseudo two dimensional before he photographed them, and for me, his photography is about selection and framing. The extra thing that resonated most strongly with me in Meatyard's landscapes was the construction of two dimensions from three. This adds a further handy tool, but the sense of depth makes it so much easier for the viewer to take things too literally. The only similar note I have found thus far was sounding in some of Ray Metzker's landscapes.

Meatyard sounds like an interesting man, and a welcome antidote to the usual cliches about artists' lifestyles. I love the idea of his two week printing blitz, with his wife as ultimate artistic arbiter and continuous loud Jazz suffusing the whole house. The purist in me knows I shouldn't be seduced by biographical details, but purity gets dull fast.

I'd be interested in pronunciation too. Similar English surnames tend to shorten the yard to a swallowed "yud" ("Tiltyard" becomes a hasty "tillyud"), but they do things differently in the USA, even in towns called Normal.

Struan

[Jean-Louis Llech]

Frank, what do you mean by "Would have been hard to double-expose a Rollei TLR" ?
I don't understand.

[James Rhem]

In addition to Barbara Tannenbaum's book (which is an excellent overview) more "landscape" images are to be found in "In Perspective: Ralph Eugene Meatyard" by Christopher Meatyard. The book is mostly found in Italian since it was the catalog for a big Italian show, but a limited number of copies were published in English and sometimes a German bookseller has one (expensive).

The upcoming show (Dec 04) at the ICP in NYC has a book with it that should be heavy on landscape images.

Meatyard started out with a Bolex twin lens C-22. He moved to a Leica but didn't like it. He acquired a Rollieflex and pretty much stuck with it for the rest of his life. He did own a Mamiyaflex with several lenses (almost certainly purchased from Cranston Ritchie's widow) for a time, but did not like it. He preferred to stick with one focal length; so he sold the camera.

He was indeed a friend of Thomas Merton, having met him in Jan 1967. They corresponed and he visited Merton's hermitage on several occasions, but I would hardly say he was over there "all the time." Merton, of course, died in December 1968.

Further, while Madelyn Meatyard (and the famly do do that "yud" thing with the name -- though nobody else in Lexington does) did offer her opinion about REM's prints when the printing was going on, she was hardly the "final arbiter." Indeed, if she didn't like something, Gene really didn't like hearing about it she told me.

James Rhem

(author Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater and Other Figurative Photographs, D.A.P: New York, 2002)

[Lucybelle Critter]

Hi,

I was googling Meatyard's name just now and found this thread and thought I might contribute, if you're still out there.

I was a student of two of Meatyard's friends/students while I was student at U.K. in Lexington, Ky. I also met several people who come up in writings about Meatyard; the late Guy Davenport and others who were professors in the English Dept. at U.K. I still live in Lexington and in fact my house, where I'm sitting right now, is just over a city block from Imperial Plaza Shopping Center where Meatyard had his optometry business, "Eyeglases of Kentucky." When I first moved to Lexington in the early '80s someone was still operating the business and the sign included a gigantic pair of glasses attached to the roof over the doorway. I hadn't heard of Meatyard at the time, but I do remember the giant glasses. The shop is no longer there, and I think the space in the shopping center that was his is now a Chinese restaurant.

The info I was given is that he used a twin lens Rolleiflex in 2 1/4" format. I have seen very early shots of his that used 35mm. I have only read that it was a rangefinder Leica. The early 35mm shots were simpler and often candids, but still usually had some "disturbing" about them even then. For example, the focal point being a strange position of a hand or arm in an otherwise completely typical snapshot.

I don't know if he had running water in his darkroom or not...but he did live in quite a normal city suburb, also not far from here. If he lacked running water in his darkroom it might have been explained by the fact that his darkroom was most likely not a permanent one. He would typically accumulate undeveloped rolls of film throughout the year and then develop and print them all at once sometime in the winter. Remember - he was not a professional photographer.

I do not think he was alienated from society in any way. There are some things I can't reconcile either, but he was apparently president of his P.T.A. for a time, and when you ask someone who knew him to describe him, they invariably say he was just a normal guy. I seem to remember someone saying he said he was strongly influenced by Minor White. Van Deren Coke would have been another influence.

A friend of his who worked in a very similar style was the late Robert May, who was an IBM engineer in Lexington. May is a bit more refined and technical, often sepia toned, and loses some of the gothic quality of Meatyard. Also look into Guy Mendes and Bones Carpenter and anything having to do with The Lexington Camera Club in the 1950s. The University of Louisville has a huge collection of original Meatyard prints.

Good luck,
Jim

[Struan Gray]

Many thanks for the reply Jim. Twiggy abstracts have grown to become a recurrent theme in my own photography and it is always good to hear new things about one of my inspirations.