Mike Disfarmer

Mike Disfarmer (born Mike Meyer, 1884–1959) was an American photographer posthumously known for his portraits of everyday people in rural Arkansas from the 1920s to the 1950s.

Like photographer Vivian Maier and illustrator Henry Darger, Disfarmer was unrecognized during his lifetime and out of touch with his relatives — receiving notoriety only after his death.

When his stark, realist photographs, noted examples of outsider art, were rediscovered in the 1970s, they were recognized for their artistic merit, especially given that the photographer himself was self-taught, without formal training or influence from a larger art context.