Raymond Meeks

Raymond Meeks (born 1963) is an American photographer. "Much of his work focuses on memory and place, and captures daily life with his family." 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 Foundation and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. His work is held in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Light Work in Syracuse, NY, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Life and work Meeks was born in Columbus, Ohio. and the Catskill Mountains, New York. He once had a career as a commercial photographer, travelling all over the U.S. "to photograph anonymous hotel rooms".

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, 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. 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 and Lucas Foglia. Contact Sheet 172: Light Work Annual 2013. Syracuse: Light Work, 2013. .

Exhibitions Light Work, Syracuse, NY, November–December 2014. An exhibition of Meeks' work throughout his career". 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, Aaron Siskind Foundation, New York City. One of six recipients that year. 2020: Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography Light Work, Syracuse, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: 1 print (as of 23 September 2021)