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spiritual and natural energy inherent in them’’
(Tannenbaum, 1991).
In 1957, Meatyard shared an exhibition with
Coke at A Photographer’s Gallery in New York
City. His first one-man show was held at Tulane
University in New Orleans in 1959, the year in
which Coke published a Meatyard portfolio in
Aperturewith an accompanying text. Meatyard
was included by Beaumont Newhall in the New
Talent in the Photography U.S.A. section ofArt
in Americain 1961. During 1967–1970, he collabo-
rated with the writer Wendell Berry on work which
resulted in the bookThe Unforeseen Wilderness
(1971), to convey the essence of the Red River
Gorge, a wilderness area in Kentucky.
‘‘Produced throughout his career, Meatyard’s fig-
urative works are romances as Ambroise Bierce
defined the genre: stories that need never actually
have taken place to ring true’’ (Tannenbaum 1991).
In these photographs, he was creating the illusion of
childhood, free of care and full of curiosity, as in
Untitled (Child with Hubcap), c. 1959. The images
are staged realities drawing upon juxtapositions,
dreams, alienation, and in many cases, conflict. By
posing family members with strange props and masks
and bringing together symbols of death and decay
with children, he explored a deeper layer of meaning
and truths behind relationships, the transition from
childhood to adulthood, consciousness, and existence.
In 1970, Meatyard discovered he had cancer. He
continued to photograph what would become his
most enigmatic series,The Family Album of Lucy-
belle Crater, which he had begun just before his
diagnosis. A name adapted from a character in a
Flannery O’Connor short story, it was based on the
concept of informal but staged poses of a family
album and Gertrude Stein’s essay, ‘‘Portraits and
Repetitions’’ (1935). Meatyard employed his wife,
Madelyn, as the central constant masked figure
photographed alongside a myriad of masked fa-
mily members and friends including himself.
Meatyard died on 7 May 1972. His powerful and
unique work, which aligned fabricated figurative
imagery with deep psychological introspection, set
the stage in contemporary art practice for figures
such as Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, and Jeff
Wall, although his impulse to record the myster-
ious and ultimately inexplicable nature of everyday
human existence is far removed from the postmo-
dern strategies explored by these artist-photogra-
phers. His photographs continued to be seen
following his death in a number of exhibitions
and publications, most notably a major traveling
retrospective,Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An Ameri-
can Visionary, organized by the Akron Art

Museum in 1991;Ralph Eugene Meatyard (Aper-

ture 18); andThe Family Album of Lucybelle Cra-

ter, both in 1974. His photographs are included in

numerous major collections, including the George

Eastman House, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

VincentCianni

Seealso:Photography in the United States: the South

Biography

Born in Normal, Illinois, 15 May 1925. Attended Williams

College, Williamtown, Massachusetts under the Navy V-

12 program, 1943–1944; Illinois Wesleyan University,

Bloomington, Illinois, 1950; studied under Van Deren

Coke in Lexington, Kentucky and joined the Lexington

Camera Club and Photographic Society of America,

1954; attended photography workshop in Bloomington,

Indiana; studied with Henry Holmes Smith and Minor

White, 1956. Married Madelyn McKinney; apprenticed

as optician in Chicago, 1946; licensed in 1949; opened

own optical business, Lexington, Kentucky 1967. Exhib-

ited inCreative Photography, organized by Van Deren

Coke, with Adams, White, Siskind, Callahan, the Wes-

tons and others, 1956; exhibited with Van Deren Coke at

A Photographer’s Gallery, New York City, 1957; first

solo exhibition at Tulane University, 1959; selected by

Beaumont Newhall for ‘‘New Talent in Photography

USA’’ section ofArt in America, 1961. PublishedRalph

Eugene Meatyard, Gnomem Press, 1970. Died in Lex-

ington, Kentucky, 7 May 1972.

Individual Exhibitions

1956 A Photographer’s Gallery; New York (With Van

Deren Coke)

1959 Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana

1961 University of Florida; Gainesville, Florida

1962 Carl Siembab Gallery; Boston, Massachusetts

1967 Bellarmine College; Louisville, Kentucky

University of New Mexico; Albuquerque, New Mexico

1970 Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology;

Chicago

Center for Photographic Studies; Louisville, Kentucky

Visual Studies Workshop; Rochester, New York

1971 Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, Illinois

George Eastman House; Rochester, New York

J.B. Speed Art Museum; Louisville, Kentucky

Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge,

Massachusetts

1972 Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum; Santa Ana,

California

Columbia College; Chicago, Illinois

1973 Witkin Gallery; New York, New York

1974 Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Colorado Springs,

Colorado

1975 Madison Art Center; Madison, Wisconsin

1976 Center for Visual Arts Gallery, Illinois State Univer-

sity; Normal, Illinois. Traveled to American Cultural

Center, Paris

MEATYARD, RALPH EUGENE