Disfarmer – Genius Or Misfit?

Mike Disfarmer was portrait photographer in the small town of Heber Springs, Arkansas. His career spanned two world wars and the Great Depression. He created simply wonderful portraits that documented the people of Heber Springs during that period. Like now-renowned street photographer, Vivian Maier, Disfarmer was “discovered” by a stroke of luck that saved them from being forgotten. Both Disfarmer and Maier did not receive the recognition they deserved until after their deaths. For Disfarmer, recognition came 50 years later. But was Disfarmer a genius or a misfit?

Disfarmer was by all accounts not a very sociable person (another trait he shares with Maier). You came to his studio and stood against a very plain backdrop and he made your portrait for 25 cents. He was meticulous about lighting, sometimes spending up to an hour getting it just right. His subjects seem to all have a faraway look in their eye and rarely smiled. Perhaps it was because he said he told them he used a slow shutter speed so they needed to be still and therefore restrained from smiling and blinking to hold still.

Whether he did this deliberately as part of his style we will never know. All of this was well before Instragram so people didn’t automatically “pose”. They simply stood there without artifice or guile and stared into the camera. Some came in their work clothes and some came in their “Sunday best”; being in a rather poor area sometimes these clothes were one in the same. He also photographed men in uniform home from the war or about to go to the war.

Disfarmer’s Story and Video

Disfarmer produced portraits that are beautiful and tell of story of the people and America of that time. We may never know for sure whether it was because he was a true genius or he had just stumbled into a style by accident. I first learned of him when I found a video on Amazon Prime about him. You can also rent or buy this on Youtube. The trailer is below and well worth watching as is the full 52-minute video.

The video gives a glimpse of this enigmatic personality but it’s only a glimpse because there was much he didn’t share. Why did he really change his name from Meyer to Disfarmer? What’s the significance of the “black stripe”? Was his style truly deliberate? The video includes a number of his photos that whet our appetite. It leaves us wanting more.

If you’d like to see more photos or learn more about Disfarmer there are a number of books available. There are also two websites dedicated to him; Disfarmer.com and Disfarmer.org.

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