From: Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net)
Date: 01/08/03-09:59:04 AM Z
Richard,
Disfarmer's own name of course would't be in any birth records since it's a
made-up moniker sigifiying his dislike of farm life. I don't recall whether
his "real" name was stated in the original story that accompanied the
release of the pictures in the '70's. The portrait subjects wouldn't
necessarily be identified by name--these were inexpensive commercial
portraits delivered for cash. There might be careful records for re-orders,
but whether those records survive is a question. Best bet would probably be
to see if any "vintage prints" can be found in the possession of families
who've resided in Heber Springs since the 1940's. They were made for that
purpose so prints should be out there in albums and boxes and trunks. I'd
expect that to work because, as mentioned, I think the work is genuine.
Sounds like a perfect dissertation project.
Of course glass plates haven't become completely obsolete even today, but it
doesn't seem likely they'd be used by a small portrait studio eaking out a
living in a rural community. Technical concerns like dimensional precision
certainly weren't an issue in producing these pictures.---Carl
--
web site with picture galleries
and workshop information at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cweese/
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