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 (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an 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 charge, the museum was privately established in ...

(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 Sy ...

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. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

Life and work

Meeks was born in Columbus, Ohio. He has lived in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

and the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined a ...

, 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, on 13 September 1973, in ''Disc ...

, 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, Susan Lipper,

Gregory Halpern Gregory Halpern (born 1977) is an American photographer and teacher, living in Rochester, New York. He is a professor of photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology and is a full member of Magnum Photos. Halpern has published a number of ...

, Deborah Luster, Ron Jude 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 ...

, 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 Bass (born March 7, 1958) is an American writer and an environmental activist. He has a Bachelor of Science in Geology with a focus in Wildlife from Utah State University. Right after he graduated, he interned for one year as a Wildlife Bio ...

. . Accompanied by a booklet of poetry with the same title by

Forrest Gander Forrest Gander (born January 21, 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 ...

. 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 for 21 years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. On 12 March 2009 he was elected Chancellor of the Natio ...

. 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 (

. 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) is an American photographer known for his books and exhibitions ''Sound Affects'', ''Redheaded Peckerwood'', ''Bottom of the Lake'', and ''Gong Co.'' ''Redheaded Peckerwood'' was awarded the Rencontres d'Arles Aut ...

Alessandra Sanguinetti Alessandra Sanguinetti (born 1968) is an American photographer. Sanguinetti is a member of Magnum Photos and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship. Life and work Born in New York City, Sanguinetti moved to Argentina at the age of two and lived t ...

and

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German Fine-art photography, photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillman ...

each had one book in a set of four. *''Contact Sheet 179: Raymond Meeks.'' Syracuse:

, 2014.. Includes a conversation between Meeks and

Shane Lavalette Shane Lavalette (born 1987) is an American photographer. Life and work Lavalette was born in Burlington, Vermont. He studied photography at Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he received a BFA in 2009. In ...

. *''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. . *''The Inhabitants''. London: Mack; France: Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, 2023. With poetry by George Weld. .

Collaborative publications

*''Orchard Volume 1: November 2010: Deborah Luster: Crime Victims Chronicle.'' New York: Silas Finch, 2010. By Meeks and Deborah Luster. 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. 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 Brad Zellar (born November 16, 1961) is an American author and journalist. Zellar's writing often is accompanied by photographs; he has collaborated several times with photographer Alec Soth. The Coen brothers film ''A Serious Man'', nominated ...

. 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

, 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,

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: *

, Paris *

, Syracuse, NY *

, TX *

, 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