Raymond Meeks (born 1963) is an American photographer.
"Much of his work focuses on memory and place, and captures daily life with his family."
He has published a number of books including ''Pretty Girls Wander'' (2011) which "chronicles his daughter's journey from adolescence to adulthood";
and ''Ciprian Honey Cathedral'' (2020), which contains symbolic, figurative photographs taken in and around a new house, and of his partner just before waking from sleep.
Meeks is co-founder of ''Orchard Journal,'' in which he collaborates with others.
In 2016 he received a Siskind Fellowship Grant from the
Aaron Siskind
Aaron Siskind (December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject. He was closely involved with, if ...
Foundation and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship.
His work is held in the collections of the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
in Paris, the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
(Washington, DC),
Light Work
Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications.
History
The organization is housed at Syra ...
in Syracuse, NY, and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
.
Life and work
Meeks was born in Columbus, Ohio.
He has lived in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
and the
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
, New York. He once had a career as a commercial photographer, travelling all over the U.S. "to photograph anonymous hotel rooms".
"Much of his work focuses on memory and place, and captures daily life with his family."
''Pretty Girls Wander'' (2011) "chronicles his daughter's journey from adolescence to adulthood."
''Ciprian Honey Cathedral'' (2020) contains symbolic, figurative photographs taken in and around a new house, and of his partner just before waking from sleep.
Vince Aletti
Vince Aletti (born 1945) is a curator, writer, and photography critic.
Career
Music industry
Aletti was a contributing writer for ''Rolling Stone'' from 1970 to 1989. He was the first person to write about disco in an article published by the m ...
, wrote in ''Photograph Magazine,'' that "he finds a certain harsh beauty in its
rovidence, Rhode Island'swastelands that allies him with the best of the New Topographics crew."
Parr and Badger include Meeks, along with
Mark Steinmetz
Mark Christopher Steinmetz (born 1961) is an American photographer. He makes black and white photographs "of ordinary people in the ordinary landscapes they inhabit".
Steinmetz's work was shown in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, ...
,
Susan Lipper,
Gregory Halpern
Gregory Halpern (born 1977) is an American photographer and teacher. He currently teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is a nominee member of Magnum Photos.
Halpern has published a number of books of his own work; ''Zzyzx'' won Ph ...
,
Deborah Luster
Deborah Luster (born 1951) is a photographic artist from Northwest Arkansas, US, and has been a professional photographer since the 1990s. Luster has at least one book in print, ''One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana'', and is known for using ...
,
Ron Jude
Ron A. Jude (born 1965) is an American photographer and educator, living in Eugene, Oregon. His photography, which "often explores the relationship between people, place, nature and memory", has been published in a number of books. Jude works as a ...
and
Doug Rickard
Doug Rickard (26 May 1939 – 7 May 2002) was an Australian-born space engineer. He is known for his stories of engineering while at the Woomera Deep Space Station. He died in 2002 from myelofibrosis caused by contact with cobalt-60 while w ...
, in "an interesting new generation of US photographers – post-New Topographical, one might call them . . . they are quixotic and individualistic, and are looking at America's heartland with a collective fresh eye informed by both the country's photographic heritage and a strong desire to tell American stories at a time when the country seems unsure of itself."
Meeks says about his practice:
“I’ll work for a while making pictures, most often within walking distance of my backyard—observations and occurrences that make up the fabric of daily life, so that I make work where I find myself wanting to spend time with a person or a subject, oftentimes dictated by the type of experiences that I want to have in the world. I’m not a prolific photographer. I don’t always have a camera on me. I spend more time without a camera, in part because the moment I have a camera, the thing I’m interested in eludes me—I don’t see it. I have to experience it without a camera first, and then hope that there’s some semblance of it when I go back to photograph that can capture what drew me towards it the first time. I’m really slow to visually organize and make sense of things, so I have to experience the things I’m drawn to a lot—quite frequently—before I can photograph, which is why I end up photographing close to home, because it’s a subtle feature in a landscape I drive past the hundredth time that finally informs a picture.”
Meeks often self-publishes limited edition handmade artist's books under the name Dumbsaint Editions; these artist’s books are “raw and improvisational objects, sometimes housed in casings fashioned from foam core and strips of wood, sometimes comprising loose leaves bound together with adhesive tape, or filled with pages on which prints are made on the back of pages stripped from other books.”
Meeks is co-founder of ''Orchard Journal,''
in which he collaborates with some of his contemporaries.
Parr and Badger include ''Orchard Volume 1: Crime Victims Chronicle,'' by Meeks and Luster, in the third volume of their photobook history.
Publications
Publications by Meeks
*''Sound of Summer Running.'' Tucson:
Nazraeli, 2004. Photographs by Meeks, text by
Rick Bass
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
. . Accompanied by a booklet of poetry with the same title by
Forrest Gander
Forrest Gander (born 1956) is an American poet, translator, essayist, and novelist. The A.K. Seaver Professor Emeritus of Literary Arts & Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2019 for ''Be With' ...
. Edition of 50 copies.
*''A Clearing.'' Portland: Nazraeli, 2008. . Edition of 500 copies
*''Doctrine of an Axe.'' One Picture Book 54. Portland: Nazraeli, 2008. . Eight reproductions and one original photograph. Includes on a separate leaf the poem "The doctrine of an axe" by
Maurice Manning
Maurice Manning (born 14 June 1943) is an Irish academic and former Fine Gael politician. Manning was a member of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) for 21 years, serving in both the Dáil Éireann, Dáil and the Seanad Éireann, Seanad. Since Aug ...
. Edition of 500 copies.
*''Middle Air.'' Self-published / Dumbsaint, 2009. Edition of 40 copies.
*''Carousel.'' Self-published / Dumbsaint, 2009. Two editions of 60 copies total.
*''Nevermore.'' Self-published, 2008. . With a poem by
Kazimir Malevich
Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...
. Edition of 25 copies.
*''Amwell , Continuum.'' Portland: self-published / Dumbsaint, 2010. .
*''Who Will Stay.'' Portland: self-published / Dumbsaint, 2010. .
*''Amwell.'' Portland: Nazraeli, 2010. Nazraeli Press Six by Six, Set 1 v. 3. . Edition of 100 copies.
*''Pretty Girls Wander.'' Portland: self-published / Dumbsaint, 2011.
*''2 Solitudes.'' Self-published / Dumbsaint, 2013. . Edition of 40 copies.
*''Erasure.'' Oakland, CA: TBW, 2013. Subscription Series #4, Book #3. . Edition of 1500 copies. Meeks,
Christian Patterson
Christian Patterson (born 1972, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, U.S.) is an American photographer known for his ''Sound Affects'' and ''Redheaded Peckerwood'' series which have received solo exhibitions and been published as books. ''Redheaded Pecke ...
,
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Alessandra Sanguinetti (born 1968) is an American photographer. A number of her works have been published and she is a member of Magnum Photos. She has received multiple awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Life and work
Born ...
and
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations.
Tillmans was the first photog ...
each had one book in a set of four.
*''Contact Sheet 179: Raymond Meeks.'' Syracuse:
Light Work
Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications.
History
The organization is housed at Syra ...
, 2014.. Includes a conversation between Meeks and
Shane Lavalette.
*''In Love with Drama.'' Self-published / Dumbsaint, 2015. Edition of 8 copies.
*''Winter Farm Auction 1.2016 Mt Gilead, Ohio.'' Self-published / Dumbsaint, 2016. Folio of six broadsides. Edition of 10 copies.
*''Halfstory Halflife.'' Paris: Chose Commune, 2018. .
*''Ciprian Honey Cathedral.'' London:
Mack, 2020. .
*''Somersault.'' London: Mack, 2021. .
Collaborative publications
*''Orchard Volume 1: November 2010: Deborah Luster: Crime Victims Chronicle.'' New York: Silas Finch, 2010. By Meeks and
Deborah Luster
Deborah Luster (born 1951) is a photographic artist from Northwest Arkansas, US, and has been a professional photographer since the 1990s. Luster has at least one book in print, ''One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana'', and is known for using ...
. Three editions of 200 copies total. . "Photographs taken by Meeks while assisting Luster in New Orleans with text excerpted from A Crime Victims Guidebook by Rose Preston, and a portfolio of images from Luster's body of work Tooth for an Eye." With a text by Kevin Sullivan.
*''Orchard Volume 2: Not Seen , Not Said: Wes Mills.'' New York: Silas Finch, 2011. Photographs by Meeks, drawings by
Wes Mills. Three editions of 200 copies total.
*''Orchard Volume 3: Idyll: Mark Steinmetz.'' New York: Silas Finch, 2011. One body of work by each of Meeks and
Mark Steinmetz
Mark Christopher Steinmetz (born 1961) is an American photographer. He makes black and white photographs "of ordinary people in the ordinary landscapes they inhabit".
Steinmetz's work was shown in a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, ...
. Three editions of 200 copies total.
*''Dumbsaint 01: Township.'' TIS/dumbsaint. Brooklyn: Tis, 2017. Photographs by Meeks, Adrianna Ault and Tim Carpenter. Short story by
Brad Zellar. Two editions of 750 copies total.
Publications with contributions by Meeks
*''Core Samples from the World.'' New York:
New Directions, 2011. By Forrest Gander. . Poetry and essays by Gander, photographs by Meeks,
Graciela Iturbide
Graciela Iturbide (born May 16, 1942) is a Mexican photographer. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and is included in many major museum collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The J. Paul Getty Museum.
Biograp ...
and
Lucas Foglia
Lucas Foglia (born 1983) is an American photographer, living in San Francisco. "His work is concerned mainly with documenting people and their relationship to nature", for which he has travelled extensively making landscape photography and portrai ...
.
*''Contact Sheet 172: Light Work Annual 2013.'' Syracuse: Light Work, 2013. .
Exhibitions
*
Light Work
Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications.
History
The organization is housed at Syra ...
, Syracuse, NY, November–December 2014. An exhibition of Meeks' work throughout his career".
*''Raymond Meeks: Sonder'', Casemore Kirkby, San Francisco, CA, June-August, 2019.
*''Raymond Meeks: Cabbage White'' Galerie Wouter Van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 2016-January 2017.
*''Raymond Meeks: In Love with Drama'' Galerie Wouter Van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March-April 2015.
*''Raymond Meeks: Where Objects Fall Away'' Galerie Wouter Van Leeuwen, Amsterdam, Netherlands, February-April 2014.
Awards
*2016: Siskind Fellowship Grant,
Aaron Siskind
Aaron Siskind (December 4, 1903 – February 8, 1991) was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject. He was closely involved with, if ...
Foundation, New York City. One of six recipients that year.
*2020: Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography
Collections
Meeks' work is held in the following permanent collections:
*
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, Paris
*
Light Work
Light Work is a photography center in Syracuse, New York. The artist-run nonprofit supports photographers through a community-access digital lab facility, residencies, exhibitions, and publications.
History
The organization is housed at Syra ...
, Syracuse, NY
*
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
, TX
*
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
, Washington, D.C.: 1 print (as of 23 September 2021)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meeks, Raymond
1963 births
Living people
Artists from Columbus, Ohio
Photographers from Ohio
21st-century American photographers