Ralph Eugene Meatyard

In the development of my artist research, I have recently become very fascinated in the work of photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard. His photographed portraits of people with these scary appearances provoke such an extreme sense of discomfort for the viewer. Meatyard experimented with new means of expression, from dream-like portraits- often set in abandoned places- to multiple exposures, motion blue, and other photographic methods; creating a great sense of abstraction. Meat yard's work was published in important art magazines, shown and collected by major museums- but also his peers regarded his work among the most original, yet disturbing imagery ever created with a camera.

These portraits in Meatyard's work are portrayed as extremely unsettling, and rather disturbing- shown through their crooked teeth, drooping eyes, and gaunt wide smiles- creating an almost cartoon-like appearance for some of these images. There's also something about them which is quite childlike; particularly when he actually uses children to model these gigantic, disproportionate heads. When I look at these images, all I can think of is it's almost as if we've caught these strange people in their everyday lives- simply just having a conversation or sitting down.

I find this photograph the most unsettling out of all his other works. It is quite clearly a child depicted in this image, holding onto a doll in the darkness. However, Ralph has entirely changed the perception of this image by attaching an old mans head onto the body of this child, creating a very unsettling appearance. This abnormality is further emphasised through the exaggeration in size of this head- which is much larger than the childs body. However, this photograph could essentially suggest that this old man is reminiscing on his past, put in the shoes of his former self as a child. His facial expression also portrays sadness- as he looks down at this doll with an empty look on his face.



From analysing some of the works of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, it is clear that he has a very distinctive and unusual style for his photographs- but also some of his works hold a strong resemblance to puppets, with their large heads, and tiny physiques. It terms of the progression of my work, I think that I would like to paint very large heads onto much smaller bodies, as I think this will create a very interesting, yet disturbing effect for my work. I also thought about who I could create my own images- like Meatyard's, where I take photographs of people with distorted, large heads.