Ralph Eugene Meatyard

The photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard challenge traditional norms, often described as visionary, surrealistic, and meditative. These evocative images of friends, family, and the surrounding natural world reveal a nuanced psychology of human interaction. Meatyard, an optician by trade in Lexington, Kentucky, began his photographic journey in 1950 to capture moments of his first-born son. His involvement with the Lexington Camera Club led to friendships with notable figures like Van Deren Coke, Guy Davenport, Thomas Merton, Wendell Berry, Jonathan Williams, and Minor White. Meatyard's staged and enigmatic images frequently feature masks and abandoned spaces, subtly addressing social, political, and cultural themes. His work prominently showcases the natural environment, exemplified in the Light on Water series, where long exposures create calligraphic texts, and the No-Focus series, which intentionally blurs stems and twigs. In his later Motion-Sound series, gentle camera movements produce multiple exposures of woodland scenes, evoking abstract sound patterns. This book accompanies an exhibition curated by ICP Assistant Curator Cynthia Young, with contributions from writer Guy Davenport, who also penned the text. It includes exhibition history, chronology, and bibliography.