Disfarmer: Heber Springs Portraits 1939–1946

by Julia Scully (Contributor), Disfarmer

In Heber Springs, a reclusive photographer known simply as Disfarmer created an uncanny record of American rural life during the 1930s and 1940s. Working out of his modest studio, Disfarmer created portraits which are direct and unpretentious. Disfarmer's portraits of cotton farmers, tradesmen, soldiers home on leave, and the extended families that made up this rural community, reveal a common bond that is rapidly disappearing in the United States. They are bold portraits, and sometimes confrontational, yet they show his sitter's humble grace and small-town charm. Handed down through generations and found today in the family albums of this community, Disfarmer's portraits are emblematic of the post-Depression era. These photographs, many unpublished or rarely seen, underscore his uniquely American vision of place.

Genres: Photography, History, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful photographs - I never get tired of looking at them and wondering what the story behind each one is.
This Twin Palms edition is beautifully designed and printed and adds to the images in the first Disfarmer book, published by Addison House in 1976. Given that, I still can't help feeling that the Addison House edition is truer to the subject matter. And having said that, I'm still keeping both editions and will look at and enjoy both.

Edited - July 13, 2021 - A New Yorker story on Mike Disfarmer's estate:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-jou...

The art world is just like any other sleazy business. Where there's money, there are people trying to grab some of it and lawyers who will probably end up with most of it.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disfarmer may not have known a widespread notoriety in his days, but he certainly knew how to take pictures that could define a generation. Rumored to have sometimes forced his sitters to wait an hour for him to get the light just so, I think it's safe to say, he aspired for his work to not be merely acceptable or mediocre, possessing a practiced precision, and exceptional understanding light. The portraits he took have a strong gravitational pull, magnetic, stark, haunting, (and a good accompaniment to Dorthea Lange, I might add), these are people who bore a hard beating and weathering from life. Then there's Disfarmer himself, who like another posthumously herald photographer, Vivian Maier, was a fascinating, tightly woven enigma; eccentrics, oddballs, misunderstood perhaps most of all by their families and the people around them. I've been captivated by mysteries since I was a young girl, which makes me wish I could know more about Disfarmer, hear from him himself, but I'm grateful his photos remain, and perhaps that was the only trace of himself he intended to leave behind.

[Ben Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disfarmer's portraiture documents an important era in America, as told from his small studio in Heber Springs, Arkansas. There is a gothic, timeless beauty in the awkward poses he captures from the people that wandered in. He was a drunk and was remembered as a cranky old bastard who never took much time making people at ease when he pointed his camera at them. Instead, he would snap whenever he was ready, capturing this strange casual between expression on the common folk faces.

I got a lot out of this book, especially knowing that it took years of research and fieldwork to gather them together like this. The printing is beautiful and the design is simplistic and minimal, just like Disfarmer's portraits. Though he was never recognized for his genius in life, the small town historian Mike Disfarmer has achieved posthumous acclaim, and well-deserved. That seems to be the goal of every true artist; to leave their work behind to attentive generations to come.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you are a sucker for photographs found in used books this is a must have. portraits of everyday rural arkansans. it seems as you flip through the book and stop on them and take them in, that here they are in their glory. the people who simply worked and ate dinner and did it again. living ordinary lives. standing in a makeshift little studio with a simple canvas backing and having spent a few cents to be captured there. in a dress. or in overalls or uniform. with their grandmothers and mothers and sons and sisters and brothers. real. and simple. and intimate. this is a beautiful book.