Untitled, (Flag - derelict interior with Christopher), 1960

Meatyard's carefully constructed photographs often draw from the formal concerns with walls and textures to be found in the work of Callahan and Siskind. However, Meatyard's interest in mood and his inclusion of precisely positioned figures introduce psychological and even symbolic dimensions. Without undermining the taut formal structures that he created, Meatyard often used heavy shadows and heightened gestures to create photographs that were at once prosaic and allegorical. A wall could allude to the American flag or even to centuries of Christian iconography (lot 126).