Disfarmer January 27, 2009

'Disfarmer' is inspired by the forty-year career (1917-1946) of portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer, who for decades shunned his family and neighbors while operating the only portrait studio for miles around Heber Springs, Arkansas. Using glass plate photography long after it was obsolete, Disfarmer built a special darkroom to house his camera, so both photographer and subject were alone in the instant the photo was taken. When 4,000 of his negatives surfaced in the 1970s, Disfarmer's photos were recognized as a stunning achievement, with their exquisite artistry, profound empathy and invaluable documentation of a vanishing way of life.