SBS TV in Australia ran a documentary (made by a Canadian producer?) last night on the Arkansas photographer Mike (Meyers) Disfarmer.
The producers to their credit never overtly criticised the phenomenon of the discovery and sudden collectability value of Mr Disfarmer's work, and maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon, but I was aghast at "collectors" running around Heber Springs offering a token amount for prints of family photographs.
A NY printer who had undertaken to print many Disfarmer portraits was interviewed and commented on the trickiness of printing Disfarmer's negs and his prints were far better than Disfarmer's as might be expected with modern technology; however they weren't "vintage" i.e. printed by Disfarmer so not of the value of the sometimes spotty old prints that some collectors had talked the families into parting with.
Some of those family members were quite bemused by their ancestors' happy snaps being the toast of the town in NY galleries.
Much was made of the "black line" seen in light coloured backdrops which was considered by some aesthetes to be a stylistic watermark of Disfarmer, it turned out to be taped joins which he Disregarded (I'm reminded of some of Lewis Carroll's junk that is apparent in many of his sets)
The guy's work was fine, surely he was a jobbing portrait shop operator. When is the next old darkroom to be discovered to start the next exploitable local photo business. I like his adopted name which meant to him Not a Farmer (unlike those hicks he photographed?)
BTW the photographs restored and shown in Sydney as "City of Shadows" and taken by everyday wallopers of crims and crime scenes leave Disfarmer way behind. Fortunately they are owned by the state archives and not collectors.
Regards - Ross
The producers to their credit never overtly criticised the phenomenon of the discovery and sudden collectability value of Mr Disfarmer's work, and maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon, but I was aghast at "collectors" running around Heber Springs offering a token amount for prints of family photographs.
A NY printer who had undertaken to print many Disfarmer portraits was interviewed and commented on the trickiness of printing Disfarmer's negs and his prints were far better than Disfarmer's as might be expected with modern technology; however they weren't "vintage" i.e. printed by Disfarmer so not of the value of the sometimes spotty old prints that some collectors had talked the families into parting with.
Some of those family members were quite bemused by their ancestors' happy snaps being the toast of the town in NY galleries.
Much was made of the "black line" seen in light coloured backdrops which was considered by some aesthetes to be a stylistic watermark of Disfarmer, it turned out to be taped joins which he Disregarded (I'm reminded of some of Lewis Carroll's junk that is apparent in many of his sets)
The guy's work was fine, surely he was a jobbing portrait shop operator. When is the next old darkroom to be discovered to start the next exploitable local photo business. I like his adopted name which meant to him Not a Farmer (unlike those hicks he photographed?)
BTW the photographs restored and shown in Sydney as "City of Shadows" and taken by everyday wallopers of crims and crime scenes leave Disfarmer way behind. Fortunately they are owned by the state archives and not collectors.
Regards - Ross
