Photo by Mike Disfarmer.
The Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance (HSACA), in collaboration with Visit Hot Springs, is sponsoring a screening of the film Disfarmer: A Portrait of America. The film, exploring the life and work of iconic Heber Springs photographer Mike Disfarmer, will be shown Sat., Nov. 5, at 11 AM in room 201 of the Hot Springs Convention Center.
The photography exhibit of Disfarmer’s work is on the main concourse adjacent to where the film will be screened. It features 30 modern enlarged prints of Disfarmer’s photographs.
Disfarmer operated a studio in Heber Springs from 1917 until the1950s. He is renowned for his notable and profound use of light to capture the raw intensity of his subjects through studio portraiture.
This 2010 film was produced by Dennis Mohr and Hava Gurevich and directed by Martin Lavut. It focuses on the life and impact of Disfarmer and how he captured the lives and emotions of the people of rural America during the two World Wars and the Great Depression. Critics have hailed Disfarmer’s remarkable black and white portraits as “a work of artistic genius” and “a classical episode in the history of American photography.” This documentary discovers an American master, his influence on the modern Manhattan art world, and the legacy he left behind in his hometown of Heber Springs.For more information about HSACA or the arts events planned during Arts & The Park 2023, visit www.hotspringsarts.org or email mzunick@hotsprings.org.
