Ralph Eugene Metyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard (American, 1925-1972) attended Williams College as part of the Navy's V12 program in World War II. Following the war, he married, became a licensed optician, and moved to Lexington, Kentucky. When the first of his three children was born, Meatyard bought a camera to make pictures of the baby. Quickly, photography became a consuming interest. He joined the Lexington Camera Club, where he met Van Deren Coke, under whose encouragement he soon developed into a powerfully original photographer.  Meatyard used still images to record things usually reserved for moving images, such as the motion on subjects in an otherwise solid setting, scenes part sharp and out-of-focus, children and others sometimes masked, in seemingly normal, yet oddly disquieting, situations. His photographs create a world of mystery and one concerned with the ineffability of reality. Meatyard's work is housed at the Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, Smithsonian Institution and many other important collections.

Ralph Metyard photography have a dark sense of humor. I feel like his work reminds me of scary movies like psycho and silent hill. A lot of his images appear ghostly or having some type of grim reaper effect. He seems to play with light and shadow and shutter speeds in order to obtain the ghostly effects in his photos. The humor in the photos can be obtained from really looking at the images and seeing a whimiscalness either from the people or the way things in the photos are positioned. His work keeps you wondering what exactly are you looking at.