Mike disfarmer (1884-1959), le photographe américain Mike (Meyer) Disfarmer reste partiellement une énigme. Ce fils de fermiers autodidacte, excentrique et solitaire a photographié quarante années durant les habitants de Heber Springs, petite commune rurale de l’Arkansas qu’il n’a jamais quittée. A l’instar d’un Ghisoland ou d’un Chambi, Disfarmer incarne cette lignée particulière de modestes artisans photographes qui ont su, dans la quotidienneté de leurs travaux et de leur commerce, créer un style, un genre qui leur est spécifique, et dont l’importance s’est révélée au fil du temps. Son art du portrait se fonde sur une technique simple : un drap, noir ou blanc, un cadrage et une focale qui ne varient pas, l’attente scrupuleuse de la bonne lumière, aucun effet de mise en scène. Dans cette économie de moyens, Disfarmer est parvenu à dresser le panorama saisissant et comme intemporel de l’Amérique profonde en s’élevant au rang des meilleurs portraitistes du XXe siècle. Introduction de Richard B. Woodward 66 photographies noir et blanc reproduites en duotone notices biographique et bibliographique
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de Steven Kasher (Sous la direction de), Mike Disfarmer (Photographies)
Last year, as The New York Times has reported, a young couple from Heber Springs, Arkansas offered a collector 50 family photographs, unassuming black-and-white studio portraits dating from the mid-twentieth century. That quiet sale, which raised the possibility that there were other vintage prints of Mike Disfarmerís work in area family albums, set off a competitive buying frenzy that had collectors going door to door through rural Arkansas, spendingmore than a million dollars on several thousand prints. Disfarmerís work had originally been discovered in crates of glass-plate negatives, found by the speculator who purchased his estate. It was brought to light decades later in a series of books and exhibitions that set off consistent, continuing ...
A mid-season Photographs sale composed of high-quality 20th and 21st Century works on January 31, 2008.
Viewing 25 - 30 January
25-26 January, 10am - 5pm
27 January, 12pm - 5pm
28-30 January, 10am - 5pm
Reception 24 January 6-8pm
Please view our Photographs catalogue online and read more about the sale on our website www.phillipsdepury.com.
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Galerie Edwynn Houk's press release
Disfarmer: The Vintage Prints is the first exhibition in Switzerland of the vintage prints of Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959), one of America’s greatest portraitists. Posthumous prints, created from a cache of glass-plate negatives salvaged from his studio after his death, have been the subject of several books and numerous museum and gallery exhibitions since 1976, but original vintage prints have been unknown until this time. The debut of Disfarmer’s original vintage photographs is the culmination of an unprecedented two-year historical reclamation project in which a dedicated team of researchers scoured family albums in every home along every road in Cleburne County, Arkansas.
A true American eccentric, Disfarmer was born Mike Meyer in 1884. He legally changed his n...
Between 1915 and 1959, American studio photographer Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959) made portraits of the residents of Heber Springs, a small town in rural Arkansas. Only after his death did his work become known internationally and regarded as a typical example of classic American portrait photography. Foam is staging a major retrospective, with 182 vintage photographs, including a number of 8 x 10 inch prints that have never been exhibited before.
Disfarmer started life as Mike Meyer, one of seven children born to a family of German immigrants. In 1914 he and his mother arrived in Heber Springs. Along with George Penrose he ran a photographic studio for a while, called Penrose and Meyer. Their portraits were typified by the poses and props that were usual for photo studios of the time: arm in arm, or leaning on a small t...