Fred Marsh
I am Lost to the World

Participating in his second residency at ´ace, Fred Marsh came to Buenos Aires to work on a series of scans he took in a cemetery in Italy in 2012. Here, the work took a new direction he had not previously considered, and allowed us, in a truly collaborative effort, to produce a powerful re-imagining of his singular portrait works. Thus the results: a series of diptychs exploring on an even deeper level, humanity, dialogue, and communion of souls.

Now retired from the educational activity, Marsh taught photography at various colleges and universities since 1985, most recently for Columbus College of Art & Design, The Ohio State University, University of Georgia Studies Abroad in Cortona, Italy Program, and Otterbein University. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally since 1978, most recently in Woodstock, Cleveland, Houston, Zhengzhou (China), Odense (Denmark), Salzburg (Austria), and San Francisco. His photographs are in the permanent collections of Cleveland Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, Museet for Fotokunst Brandts-Odense, Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts–Houston, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, among others.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My creative practice relies on the art of slow careful observation, intuition, and chance discovery.

Over the several decades, projects in Europe and Asia recorded the seemingly quirky, often poetic scenes I came across over time in the underbelly of these urban environments. First seen from a tram or city bus window or by chance walks through historic city centers, side streets, and back alleys, exploring a city’s edges and outskirts, I sought out what I consider the formally arresting. Such spaces once teased-out bear palpable residue of human presence, reaffirming the experience of living, are my recurring subjects.