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RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD
(American, 1925-1972)
El Mochuelo (Boys with a Noose), 1962
Gelatin Silver Print
8 13/16 x 10 3/8”
Bequest of Robert C. May 1993.13.21

Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who was born in Normal, Illinois, became interested in photography while working as an optician at Tinder-Krauss-Tinder in Lexington, Kentucky. He bought his first camera in 1950 and soon immersed himself in the medium, taking workshops at the Lexington Camera Club with photographers Van Deren Coke, Minor White, and Aaron Siskind. Meatyard’s images challenge conventional notions of photography’s role in recording reality, and his unusual tactics pushed the medium to depict a spiritual dimension. His staged images of children posing with props—such as the noose in El Mochuelo—are haunting and enigmatic; his experiments with multiple exposures, blurred movements, and lack of focus created a unique brand of abstraction. He once wrote that he “always tried to keep truth” in his photographs; he stated “my work, whether realistic or abstract, has always dealt with either a form of religion or imagination … I deal mainly with the ‘surreal,’ which I feel is the especial province of photography.”