An essay on "The Weird Localism of Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Wendell Berry"

This essay examines the work of Wendell Berry (academic, poet, and farmer, who is well known for his focus on the local) and the ucanny photography of Ralph Eugene Meatyard. This essay argues that rather than simply a rehashing of the well-worn familar, or an encounter with alterity, both Berry's and Meatyard's work call neat distinctions between the familar and the strange into question. While residence tends to foster habitual perception and naturalising familiarity, Berry's and Meatyard's work suggests that increased intimacy unsettles habitual perception and reveals surprising and often monsterous aspects of familair beings and places.

The complete article is available via nla.gov.au

Comments

[Bill]

Interesting piece. Thanks for sharing it. I love this line from Mr. Berry: "Alone here, among the rocks and the trees, I see that I am alone also among the stars."