The Meatyard Project
Projects
16
Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a photographer from Kentucky in the 1950s. He would photograph his family, children, neighbors in their natural setting- but added a twist- a Halloween mask that he bought by the dozens from the local Woolworths five and dime.
Over the next 13 years, Meatyard persuaded a procession of family and friends to don one of the Woolworths masks and pose in front of his camera. The resulting photographs became the best known of the pictures he left behind when he died of cancer in 1972, at age 46. Working outside of the photographic mainstream, Meatyard experimented with multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. That work, says the photographer Emmet Gowin, who befriended Meatyard in the 1970s, is “unlike anyone else’s in this world.” His work inspired countless horror film directors that came later.
“He picked the environment first,” Christopher says of his father’s method. “Then he’d look at the particular light in that moment in that place, and start composing scenes using the camera.” With the shot composed, he would then populate it, telling his subjects where to place themselves, which way to face, whether to move or stand still.
Pine Tree High students used Ralph as an influence to create their own photos. They spent hours finding the right locations, costumes, models and masks. The results, sometimes humourous, sometimes horrific, each tell a story about their characters.
Read more: Smithsonian Magazine.org
Ralph Eugene Meatyard- the Man Behaind the Mask
Photo by Ashley Harkey