Mike Disfarmer

Mike Disfarmer was an American photographer known for his portraits of everyday people in rural Arkansas from the 1920s to the 1950s. His stark, realist photographs were rediscovered in the 1970s and later came to be regarded as works of art. Because of his status outside of the artistic mainstream, Disfarmer's photographs are considered an example of Outsider art.

Born Mike Meyer in Indiana, he moved with his family to Arkansas in 1892. He later moved to the town of Heber Springs, Arkansas at the age of thirty, where roughly a decade later he would build and operate his photography studio. Meyer changed his name to Disfarmer while in his 50s, claiming that he was adopted by the Meyers (Disfarmer is a direct reference to Meyer, an archaic German term for farmer). Disfarmer never married, and he lived alone in the photography studio until his death in 1959. While there is speculation that he was eccentric and even insane, so little is known about his personal life that there is no evidence for these assertions other than his photographs.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023