Inspired by love and loss of families in my communities, these portraits are a rich exposition of families that I am connected to through my own children and family.
In my invitation letter to this first group of families, I offered that I be allowed to come into their homes, make a photograph, and exhibit it publicly in exchange for an exhibition quality print, the digital file, and permission for the families to share it on social media.
I’d like to make a portrait of your family, in your home.
I’d like for you to think about and discuss where your family’s favorite place in your home is, and I’ll come and photograph you there. I’ll be thinking about light and stuff, so that doesn’t have to be your primary concern, but perhaps there is also a certain time of day that the place becomes your favorite place. I’ll do my best to make everyone as photogenic as possible with my simple picture taking and lighting apparatus, but dress your family however you’d like to see them.
Why am I doing this?
I feel that our families have a connection through our children’s school, through dinners or parties, but most essentially through our homes and the rooms we inhabit when we get together, socialize and play. I’m a collector, too, so I want to keep you in my menagerie as a way of keeping you in my heart.
Tim’s Garage, 2008 Giclée print 25.4 cm × 38.2 cm (10 in × 15 in)
About an hour’s drive north of the vibrant city of Montréal, Québec, in the Laurentian Mountains, is an idyllic enclave, cherished by five generations of a family.
Established in the early 20th century by Canadian communists, their descendants maintain this land community that swells in the summertime with friends and extended families cottaging and visiting permanent residents.
The community strives to protect the beauty and the natural resources of the area by limiting development and preserving common areas for varied activities.
However, the precious resources of pristine water and private, secluded woods are increasingly coming under threat from development projects on multiple fronts.
Alana’s Garden at the Studio, 2012 Giclée print 25.4 cm × 38.2 cm (10 in × 15 in)
Living Waters: 4th Annual Exhibit of the Milwaukee Jewish Artists’ Lab Group Exhibition at Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Marcus Pavilion Gallery.
6255 N. Santa Monica Blvd.
Whitefish Bay, WI, USA
June 3- July 31, 2015
Opening Reception, June 4.
Sheets are Clean (Bedroom at Auntie Katie’s), 2008. Laurentides, Québec, Canada. Giclée print 25.4 cm × 38.2 cm (10 in × 15 in)
Natural Legacy: Selections from Laurentian Internationale Solo Exhibition at 10th Street Gallery, curated by Luke Farley.
628 N. 10th Street
Milwaukee, WI, USA
April 30- May 24, 2015
Reception, May 17.
10th Street Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Marc Tasman on view at 628 North 10th Street from April 30 to May 24, 2015. A reception for the artist will be held on Sunday, May 17 from 5:30-7 p.m. The show, “Natural Legacy,” which is Tasman’s largest exhibition in Wisconsin in 5 years (since he exhibited nearly 5,000 Polaroid self portraits in the 2010 Wisconsin Triennial) contains selections from the photo series “Laurentian Internationale,” and is curated by Luke Farley. The twenty one archival color photographs on display offer a glimpse into a curious community and their utopian vision in the mountains of Quebec, and more broadly evokes particular experiences of childhood and friendships, and legacies passed between generations.
FORWARD 2014: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now Charles Allis Museum, biennial juried group exhibition
1801 N Prospect Ave
Milwaukee, WI, USA
March 7-June 29, 2014.
“Laurie Winters, Executive Director and CEO of the Museum of Wisconsin Art, was the juror for more than 250 entries and the final selections represent a range of current artistic production from around the state.” http://www.charlesallis.org/exhibitions.html
Infatuation (Boy and Frog), 2013 Giclée print 25.4 cm × 38.2 cm (10 in × 15 in)
Be Mine: A Conceptual Exhibition group show Greenleaf Art Center.
1806 W. Greenleaf Ave
Chicago, IL, USA
Opening reception, February 14, 2014.
Solo Exhibition at Galerie Remise Un Terrain Communautaire
Photographies de Marc Tasman
14 Rue de la Santé
Saint-Hippolyte, Quebec, Canada
Vernissage dans la Galerie Remise
Opening Reception
Sunday 2013-08-04 from 16:00 to 18:00
“Galerie Remise presents a series of 14 color photographs by
Marc Tasman that illuminate unique situations of culture in a
natural landscape fashioned over generations.”
Solo Exhibition at the Baron Museum Congregation Emanu-el B’ne Jeshurun
2020 West Brown Deer Rd.
River Hills, Wisconsin 53217
on view from June-September, 2013
Solo Exhibition at the Urban Ecology Center
1500 E. Park Place
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211
on view from October-December, 2012
Sunday, October 7th
2:00pm until 4:00pm
Urban Ecology Center Riverside Park
“Take a journey through [Laurentian International] viewing Marc Tasman’s brilliant photos. Enjoy Kathleen Walter’s unique mixed media compositions and be amazed by Tom Petri’s lifelike bird carvings. A show not to be missed! Artists will speak at 3pm. Show will be up through December 15, 2012.”
Visiting Poland as an adult grandchild of Jewish Holocaust survivors was a vivid experience.
The beauty of the place, Galizia, the southern part of Poland, Lesser or Little Poland, Małopolska, the cities, the Vistula River, the countryside, the Carpathian Mountains, the generosity of the people, was stunning.
This is a surreal contradiction to the deep shock of learning the intricacies of genocide.
Tour van outside the Great Market Square in Zamość. (2007). 14 x 9” giclée print (2011).
Indeed, a great deal of thinking and planning has gone into the development of post-communist Poland, to be both aesthetically astute and commercially successful, to a niche market for dark tourism, (the visiting of sites of tragedy, such as mass murder camps, New York’s Ground Zero, etc…).
Crossing down by the Vistula River, Krakow. (2007). 14 x 9” giclée print (2011).
Usually tastefully apart from the reflective and meditative spaces of the deeply disturbing sites of monstrous, systematic murders, are places where you can return from your journey with souvenirs of a lost culture.
In the cities, near the historical Jewish districts, it’s easy to find a recognizable pieces of once Jewish property such as brass candle holders (in varying states of polished shine or grime) that imply that “I’m looking at material objects that were once held by my kinfolk and their community.”
Antique store window, Krakow. (2007). 14 x 9” giclée print (2011).
The death camp in Bełżec was the first place where stationary gas chambers were used to kill Jewish people.
From March to December 1942 about 500 thousand people were murdered here, most of whom were Jews from Galizia (the former Austrian crown land that belonged to Poland between the two world wars and now stretches across Southern Poland and Western Ukraine).
The great treasure of a dark tourist is not to recover a lost work of art or even a souvenir from a destroyed relative’s household but to discover as I did, that the place where I was standing was the site of my great-grandmother’s murder. Dark treasure, indeed.
Mina, my great-grandmother, Bełżec. (2007). 14 x 9” giclée print (2011).
MARC TASMAN 