Mike Disfarmer: Cleburne County Portraits March 15, 2013

The Coen Brothers, Ralph Lauren and guitarist Bill Frisell are just a few artists who have found inspiration in the photographs of Mike Disfarmer. A small town photographer from Heber Springs, Arkansas, Disfarmer used glass plate negatives to create snapshot size photographs as keepsakes for the local community. The stark minimalism of his studio backdrops, especially those used during the 1930s and through the war years, effectively isolate his subjects and in doing so create intimate, deeply human portraits of them. The dignity of hard work and the vagaries of rural life can be read in the faces and demeanor of the many people who sat for his 'penny portraits'.