Your name
Frank Marshal
Place of birth
Paris, France
Place where you live now
Savannah, Georgia, USA
3 words to describe you
I'm always looking.
Why do you take pictures?
The joy of looking through the camera is always fascinating and then seeing the film when it comes back from the lab, priceless. But I take photos to point out the mundane beauty and sadness I see. I don’t relate to the pretty, happy go lucky go images of a luscious life style. That’s just not what I see. I see the struggles and hardship of life. The lack of fairness or justice. The faded dreams of peoples hopes.
Where do you get your inspiration?
My inspiration comes mostly from my past experiences. Older and wiser comes to mind, I have seen much in my years in this world. Music has always been a huge influence, the pictures which music can provoke. Of course other photographers are inspiring, way too many to mention. Let’s just say I like the classics.
Who are your influences?
Walker Evens was the first and Avedon is also one of my favorites. Ray K. Metzker was my mentor in college, he taught me how to see.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
Well I do gravitate towards the down and out, things which are looking for a voice. Please notice me. Then the quality of light is always a factor in any photograph. I look for the story which is out there. My photographs demand you look at them.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I have seen what impact my art has had on people. Some people have cried viewing my work, others pass it by not giving it a second thought. My work isn’t for everyone, like I said it demands attention from the viewer. I would like my work to inspire change but that’s a lot to ask. I would like to inspire younger artists as I was inspired by the photos I looked at.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Photography and music
Is there anything you want to add?
Film Rules! I See Nothing

I See Nothing
Text by Jo Pike, Creative Director, OPERA

At first glance, the photographs look to be mundane images that hold little interest. Images so familiar it registers even before the light has reached our retina. But if we take the time, we realize the images are almost completely devoid of people. They seem to pose the question of who has abandoned whom. Has this mighty moral land turned its back on the remnants of the middle class? Or have people decided not to take a walk-on part in their own demise? Are these images of a nation so habituated to decay we no longer see the desolation?

What we see in the photos are the signs. Signs of pride or ones that define. Signs that label, signs where words are so disused the meaning is obscured but the sentiment remains. Signs of better times. Signs inviting us to exit this way or warning of dead ends. Overall there is evidence of the once unquestionable belief that God and nation are our redeemers, if only we could believe enough. A hearty reminder that the dream is stronger than any reality.

The photographs invite us to step in as the sole occupant. To take an unrushed moment to remember where we are today. The beautiful stillness in the photos is eerily prescient of what was to come. The feeling of emptiness and suspended life. Leaving us to wonder if we will ever see our way to end the solitude and come together to restore our greatness.

What Frank has captured is not nostalgic snapshots of a bygone time, but a razor-sharp assessment of what we have become.

frank marshal
@istillusefilm