another in a series of posts this week about the work of photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Untitled (Boy holding flag and doll), 1959

Meatyard often used his children in posed shots, most commonly within old, abandoned buildings around northern and central Kentucky.

Untitled (Child as a bird), c. 1960

there is an undoubtedly kind of spooky character to most of these photos, both in the old building's sense of decay and abandonment, but especially as contrasted to the melancholy of youth.

Untitled (Boy below white mask and broken mirror), 1962

these are not portraits in any sense, more metaphors of time, loss, promise and fragility.

All the photos this week are scanned from the excellent book on Meatyard, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, An American Visionary published by the Akron Art Museum in 1991, editor Barbara Tannenbaum.