“Born in Normal, Illinois, in 1925, […] Meatyard attended Williams College as part of the Navy’s V12 program in World War II. Following the war, he married, became a licensed optician, and moved to Lexington, Kentucky [..] When the first of his three children was born, Meatyard bought a camera to make pictures of the baby. Quickly, photography became a consuming interest. He joined the Lexington Camera Club, where he met Van Deren Coke, under whose encouragement he soon developed into a powerfully original photographer. […] An eclectic and voracious reader, Meatyard became close friends with poets and writers, including Guy Davenport, Wendell Berry, Jonathan Williams, and the Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Meatyard’s work became well known and was exhibited widely within the United States and abroad. In 1972, he died of cancer, a week before his forty seventh birthday.” (source; sample images here)