Stephen
Marc

Relevant to Black America

As a documentary photographer and digital montage artist, I am currently engaged in an ongoing project to create an extensive photographic interpretation of American identity and sense of place. I am interested in how we define ourselves as Americans, recognizing our historical and cultural differences, and regional influences. While recording everyday rituals, news and special events (including festivals, parades, protests, and commemorations), I often find the peripheral occurrences most intriguing, as I investigate the changes in our coded social interactions, trends and styles, expressive gestures and deportment. My encounters range from humor, hope, and grace to the more serious irony, challenges, and frustrations that represent the conundrums of coexistence. The submitted photographs focusing on African American life represent only a portion of my work, as I document the diversity of the collective American experience.


1) One week after the Confederate Battle Flag was removed from the north side of the South Carolina Statehouse grounds, an African American state trooper stands guard at a Ku Klux Klan rally on the south-side stairway of the Statehouse (July 18, 2015). The KKK banner identifies them as “The Original Boys N The Hood,” Columbia, SC (2015)

2) The 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches (Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, and the 54 mile march) at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Selma, AL (2015)

3) Mardi Gras Indians at the Super Sunday Parade, New Orleans, LA (2015)

4) Drum circle performing on a downtown street during the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, Selma, AL

5) Group at the Edmund Pettus Bridge taking a “selfie” during the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery march, Selma, AL (2015)