{"product_id":"disfarmer-1939-1946-first-edition","title":"Disfarmer, 1939-1946 (First Edition, Limited)","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDISFARMER, Mike\u003c\/strong\u003e (text Julia Scully; ed. \u0026amp; designed Jack Woody). \u003cem\u003eDisfarmer: Heber Springs Portraits, 1939–1946.\u003c\/em\u003e Santa Fe, New Mexico: Twin Palms Publishers, 1996.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSmall Quarto. Original black publisher's cloth, lettered in white. Pictorial dust jacket. 206, [i] pp. 180 gravure plates. Printed on a sheet-fed gravure press in Kyoto. \u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition. Limited to 4,000 unnumbered copies.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eMike Disfarmer (1884–1959) was born Mike Meyer in Indiana, the son of German immigrants, and moved with his family to Arkansas in 1892. At some point in middle age he changed his surname — \u003cem\u003emeier\u003c\/em\u003e being an archaic German term for farmer, \u003cem\u003eDisfarmer\u003c\/em\u003e a direct repudiation of the name and presumably the identity — and settled in the small town of Heber Springs, where he built a modest studio with a large north-facing window and operated it as a commercial photographer for four decades. He charged fifty cents for three prints, did not coax his subjects into smiling, provided no props or painted backdrops, and lit everything with natural light. He died alone in his studio in 1959, in possession of thousands of glass-plate negatives, intestate and unrecognised.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe negatives were purchased by a former Heber Springs mayor, who in 1973 brought them to the attention of Peter Miller, then editor of the local newspaper. Miller spent a year publishing the portraits in his paper and preserving the glass plates; he sent prints to Julia Scully at \u003cem\u003eModern Photography\u003c\/em\u003e magazine, who immediately understood their significance. The first publication of Disfarmer's work followed in 1976. The 1996 Twin Palms edition, edited and designed by Jack Woody and produced with 180 gravure plates printed in Kyoto, drew on a wider selection of the surviving negatives to produce what became the standard monograph on the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eWhat makes Disfarmer's photographs extraordinary is precisely their resistance to artfulness. His sitters — cotton farmers, soldiers home on leave, mothers with children, courting couples, tradesmen, labourers — presented themselves to the camera without the mediation of professional stagecraft, and Disfarmer recorded them with the same directness. The results are among the most psychologically immediate portrait photographs in American art: confrontational in their plainness, quietly monumental, and possessed of an honesty that implicates the viewer. The comparison to August Sander is apt, and the comparison to Diane Arbus less so but often made. The book was selected as one of the best photography books of 1996 by the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFine in very good dust jacket.\u003c\/strong\u003e A beautiful copy, albeit for some very minor markings to jacket faces (almost imperceptible) and some foxing to inner faces, presents fine and in good order.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: \u003ca href=\"mailto:rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\" title=\"Harry Hartog Rare Book Department\"\u003erarebooks@harryhartog.com.au\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCatalogue Number: HH000268\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mike Disfarmer \u0026 Julia Scully","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48615282311411,"sku":"1110002928093","price":250.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/1_a0cd311c-4892-4726-aa97-4bfee9c355ae.png?v=1776838290","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/disfarmer-1939-1946-first-edition","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}