A black photography professor in
Arizona is driven to understand and depict the African Diaspora
– the scattering of Africans from their ancestral
homelands – because he knows so little ofhis family’s
past. Now, he is exploring North America’s Underground
Railroad. In the past four years, he has taken more than
30,000 photographs of people and places in 21 states and
Canada.
Stephen Marc, photographer and art professor at Arizona
State University’s Herberger College of Fine Arts,
is recognized for his unique and powerful photographic montages.
His images combine family snapshots, antique photographs
and images from his own extensive body of photographic work.
The dual themes of all his work are an attempt to tell both
his personal story and the story of a culture.
While on his Underground Railroad explorations, Marc’s
experiences include:
- Discovering a long-lost false grave that was the exit
from an escape tunnel for fleeing slaves. Though the exit
had never been found by the local Underground Railroad
historians, Marc’s fresh eye led him to what is
now believed to be the solution to a 100-year-old mystery.
- Visiting a house long ago owned by a conductor on the
Underground Railroad, Marc talked his way in to photograph
it during renovations, because he knew the amazing story
of two escaped slaves who hid in the rafters, right above
the heads of their would-be captors, who searched the
house and left without finding them.
- A connection with a New York community college in Jamestown,
home of Catherine Harris, a conductor on the Underground
Railroad. When Jamestown Community College attempted to
purchase some of Marc’s work that was on display,
he volunteered to create a custom piece that reflected
the community’s connection to the Underground Railroad.
About the photography: Using digital technology
to construct his complex designs, Marc creates works known
for their rich kaleidoscopic effects. They are an enigmatic
record of the artist’s coming to terms with new media
as well as a cryptic document of his constant negotiation
of his African-American identity.
The trademark repetitious patterns that in Marc’s
previous “Soul Searching” series were often
drawn from wrought iron and tile, are less apparent now,
but still present in many of the “Passage on the Underground
Railroad” images. This time they may be taken from
coded patterns on handmade quilts used to guide escaped
slaves, or the patterns of cornrow braids.
Marc’s works reinterpret and place these historic
events and places in a present-day context, incorporating
images of descendents of individuals who were key Underground
Railroad conductors or abolitionists, and also others who
live among the remnants of history on a daily basis –
often unknowingly.
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