Who is Liz?

September 25, 2007 9:47 AM

Anyone have any additional information about this picture?

This is a friend at work's Flickr page, and he wanted to see if anyone knew where this photo came from.. He found it a few years back on the web, but doesn't have any additional info.

Any ideas? or just a one-off found photo?

posted by Lord_Pall to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

I'm pretty sure that's the work of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who lived and worked in Lexington, KY until his death in 1972. The casual stance of the subject (which also calls to mind the work of Sally Mann) against a deliberately unfocused background were hallmarks of Meatyard's work. This is just a semi-educated guess, and I expect the Mefi contingent of photographers to come along shortly and either confirm or deny...
posted by Chrischris at 10:05 AM on September 25, 2007

Jacob Holdt, William Eggleston, and Danny Lyon all come to mind, but so far I can't tie it to any of them.
posted by ryanshepard at 10:08 AM on September 25, 2007

The picture says 1976, so I don't think it was Ralph Eugene Meatyard if he died in '72...
posted by slyboots421 at 10:35 AM on September 25, 2007

I thought that too, slyboots, but some of the image collections I saw during my search of Meatyard's work were categorized by date of release, with post-death dates.

I have to agree that it might not be Meatyard though. This photo seems too clear based on all the Meatyard I've been finding. But I'm no art junkie, so.
posted by cashman at 10:43 AM on September 25, 2007

John McWilliams seems like a possibility, too - are you near a library with a good photography collection?
posted by ryanshepard at 10:56 AM on September 25, 2007

I would try contacting a Lexington area college (or community college) that has a school of photography. Send that picture to anyone instructing, or even the Dean of the program, see if you get any hits that way.
posted by smitt at 11:40 AM on September 25, 2007

Richard Prince?
posted by Reggie Digest at 12:28 PM on September 25, 2007

Is the license plate any clearer in the original? It looks like "***-55*", but if you could get a bit more (and assume or figure out that it's a KY plate), that might turn into a thread you could pursue.
posted by originalname37 at 12:39 PM on September 25, 2007

Guy Mendes also seems like a good possibility here, BTW.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:03 PM on September 25, 2007