Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Dolls & Masks

Meatyard’s staged images—set in abandoned spaces and often using masks and props—are at once familiar and enigmatic, reflecting the artist’s fascination with the uncanniness of ordinary life.

Black and white photograph of a child figure wearing a mask and sitting by a creek with dolls in the water
Black-and-white photograph of a person wearing a rubber mask seated in a rowboat on the grass holding up another mask
Black-and-white photograph of three children holding baby dolls and a woman holding a mask over her face
Black-and-white photograph of a boy in a mask standing under a gall of a tree
Black-and-white photograph of a woman in a mask standing in a doorway with a child in overalls on the lower left
Black-and-white photograph of a boy seated among felled tree branches containing three masks scattered within them
Black-and-white photograph of a headless mannequin positioned on the ground next to a small doll hovering above a tray
Black-and-white photograph of eyeless doll lying on a bed through the metal bedframe
Black-and-white photograph of an assortment of rubber masks and doll heads positioned on two pedestals in an overgrown garden
Black-and-white photograph of a couple in masks laying on the floor in embrace
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Black-and-white photograph of two people in rubber masks standing against a hedgerow

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater
Black and white photograph of a young boy in a white button up shirt, apparently caught mid-motion so that his face is shown in both blurred profile and straight on.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Romances
Square black-and-white photograph of light and shadow filtering through rippling water

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Light on Water
Black and white photograph of three figures wearing masks standing outside an abandoned home with a blurred motion effect

Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Motion-Sound