Guy Mendes: The States Project: Kentucky | LENSCRATCH

I remember the first few weeks I started teaching at the University of Kentucky, I was walking around the art building which was my new home and I kept running into Guy Mendes. One has never encountered at more inviting and supportive fellow photographer. Ever since we met, he has been the first to congratulate me on a new fellowship or project. This is made even more meaningful considering Guy’s amazing career. Born in New Orleans in 1948, Guy migrated to the Bluegrass to attend UK in 1966 where he studied under the writer Wendell Berry who introduced him to Ralph Eugene Meatyard, who in turn introduced him to photography the likes of which he had never before encountered. It set him on a lifelong search for a different way of seeing through the camera, looking long and hard at the world at hand.