"In the small mountain town of Heber Springs, the Arkansas artist known as Disfarmer captured the lives and emotions of the people of rural America between 1939-1945. Critics have hailed Disfarmer's remarkable black and white portraits as "a work of artistic genius" and "a classical episode in the history of American photography." http://www.disfarmer.com/ "... considered to be one of the greatest portraitists in the history of photography. Born Mike Meyer, the 6th of 7 children to German immigrant parents, he was a renowned eccentric. After establishing his studio in Heber Springs, Arkansas, Disfarmer successfully expressed his discontent with his community in general, and his own family in particular, by legally changing his name to Disfarmer. In modern German "meier" means “dairy farmer”, and since he thought of himself as neither a "farmer," nor a "Meyer" he became "dis"- farmer. In later years he claimed that a tornado deposited him with the Meyer family. His first studio was located in the rear of his mother’s house, but by the late 1930s, Disfarmer became a fixture on Main Street; immortalizing the town’s people during a defining time in history when the Great Depression yielded to World War II. Using glass plates, Disfarmer photographed his subjects in north light and was notoriously obsessed with obtaining the correct light. Although he often spent over an hour perfecting the lighting, when he was ready to photograph he did so with very little notice given to the sitters. The resulting portraits are noted for their intense honesty, laid bare of artifice. Disfarmer's work, salvaged and rediscovered by Peter Miller in 1974, was introduced to the world through the efforts of Julia Scully of Modern Photographer. In 2004, an unprecedented 2-year historical reclamation project was launched by photography collector Michael Mattis. A dedicated team of researchers examined family ... http://bulgergallery.blogspot.nl/2009/01/mike-disfarmer-vintage-prints.html undefined

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