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Are there any Mike Disfarmer fans here? He's another photographer that died with loads of negatives and prints, and no apparent heirs. And yeah, there was a ton of controversy. Disfarmer had a small portrait studio in Heber Springs, Arkansas and made portraits of locals for a living. He had a unique style, very terse and in your face solemn. He passed away in the late 1950s with no will or known relatives. Years later his work was discovered and gallerists swooped in looking for family portraits to purchase for a couple bucks and resell for much more as art. But, like Vivian Maier's tale, ownership of his work became complicated with lawyers getting involved.
Disfarmer??? Huh, what kind of last name is that? His family name was Meyer, and was the son of German American parents who were farmers. Later in life he legally changed his name in protest to Disfarmer, apparently a dig at Meyer, which apparently has roots in Germany of a person being a farmer or landowner.
Here's a link to a good New Yorker story about Disfarmer:
Strangers made his small-town portraits famous in the art world. Decades later, his heirs want control of the estate.
www.newyorker.com
