Becoming Disfarmer

Book excerpt: Becoming Disfarmer uses over 100 images to tell the story of Mike Disfarmer's vernacular portraiture and its transformation into art. This is the first monograph on Disfarmer to feature his vintage prints along with a selection of enlargements made from his negatives in the 1970s. Disfarmer's postcard size vintage photographs are reproduced in full color to convey their varied surfaces and most are shown in the condition in which they were found, rather than as restored images. The backs of numerous vintage photographs are reproduced and transcriptions of the handwritten notes that appear on the objects are provided. In addition, the monograph has high quality reproductions of newspaper pages in which Disfarmer's images appeared, locally produced historical journals that include images by other photographers who worked in the same time and region as Disfarmer and album pages like those for which Disfarmer's photographs were originally made. Complete with three scholarly essays on the artist's work, a bibliography and exhibition history, this monograph qualifies as the most comprehensive Disfarmer publication to date.