 By Theodore McDermott Seeking a solution to the great complexities of Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s photographs by visiting every house he ever lived in, not finding the solution, and realizing that this is the very reason why his work is so good. Photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who was born in Normal, Illinois, in 1925 and died of cancer in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1972, worked his entire adult life as an optician, making lenses for glasse… RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD: “The Family Albums of Ralph Eugene Meatyard” (2006)  W. Eugene Smith – More Real than Reality By Silke van de Grift for ASX Until March 16th the Photography Museum of Amsterdam (FOAM) presents a retrospective of W. Eugene Smith (US, 1918-1978). The exhibition features six series of photographs, including The Country Doctor (1948), acclaimed as photojournalism’s first official photo-essay. The other series shown are Nurse Midwife, A Man of Mercy, Spanish Village, Pittsburgh and Minamata. In… W. EUGENE SMITH: "W. Eugene Smith – More Real than Reality" (2011)  Zoniers, Porte de Choisy, 1913 By Stephen Longmire, Afterimage, May 2001 It has been 20 years, amazingly enough, since New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) launched its landmark cycle of exhibitions of the work of French photographer Eugene Atget (1857-1927), who spent his last 30 years documenting the architectural record of Paris and its surroundings at the beginning of the last century. Together, the four installments of “… EUGENE ATGET: “Back To The Past – Eugene Atget” (2001)  By James Rhem Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s death in 1972, a week away from his 47th birthday, came at the height of the “photo boom”, a period of growth and ferment in photography in the United States which paralleled the political and social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. It was a time of ambition, not reflection, a time for writing resumés, not thoughtful and inclusive histories; in the contest of reputation, dying in 1972 m… RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD: “James Rhem on Ralph Eugene Meatyard, 1925 – 1972″ (1999) |
