Stephen  Marc

Artists Statement: As a photographer and digital montage artist, my work visually interprets American history focused on the black experience. While investigating the Underground Railroad, I became committed to learning about southern culture and heritage, from slavery through the civil rights struggle. My family connections to Mississippi and Arkansas play an important role in this interest. I have documented numerous historical sites, documents and other remnants, along with pertinent contemporary cultural references. These images are woven together digitally to create narratives that reconfigure time and space, generating insightful juxtapositions and commentary. Often the period illustrations, written texts, and functional objects, etc., serve as points of departure for determining the locations that I investigate. In addition to photographing, site visits provide me with the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the south, and its impact on the development and character of this country.

Main Artist Category: Photography

Qualifying State: Mississippi

Website:

 

Stephen  Marc

Click image to enlarge:

#01 - Untitled / Mississippi - riverboats on the Mississippi River at Natchez - reward notices from an 1844 National Intelligencer newspaper - illustrations from obsolete bank notes

#02 - Untitled / Mississippi - double-tap Phi Beta Sigma brand - cotton field and plow - wrought iron fence and shotgun houses from Vicksburg

#03 - Untitled / Iowa - text from an 1836 letter from Mississippi near Pickneyville written by a slaveowner ordering shoes for his slaves - Nishnabotna Ferry House in southwestern Iowa

#04 - Untitled / Mississippi - Confederate flag (stars and bars) - abandoned share croppers' shacks from the Mississippi Delta region - a Mississippi $100 dollar bill - bale-hooks - First Presbyterian Church of Starkville

#05 - Untitled / Mississippi - downtown Canton, MS including a view of the courthouse - tintype of my grandmother and great-great grandmother who at one time lived in Canton - my grandmother's 1948 obituary clipping - wooden hair picks

#06 - Untitled / Mississippi - Ser Boxley conducting a libation ceremony at the Mount Locus Slave Cemetery along the Natchez Trace

#07 - Untitled / Tennessee - mare houses lining the golf course at Fairvue Plantation (reportedly slaves were housed on the second floor)

#08 - Untitled / Virginia - Fort Monroe near Hampton - a major destination for escaping slaves (designated contrabands of war) seeking Union protection during the Civil War - illustrations depicting events at the fort

#09 - Untitled / Virginia - Blackhead Signpost - one of the sites identified with the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, located a few miles southwest of Jerusalem (now Courtland)

#10 - Untitled / Mississippi - tree stump torso on the courthouse grounds of downtown Canton - superimposed on the torso is an 1846 merchant token for a Charleston auction house that sold slaves - sections from two 1865 newspapers