The Weeks Gallery organized this commissioned artist-in-residence project to reflect JCC's commitment to excellence, education and cultural outreach. The goal of this project was to weave, through digital montage, Stephen's scholarly interests in the Underground Railroad and African American history with Jamestown's history, culture and diversity. His imaginative journeys - combining natural environments, architecture, and personalities - recall the past, document the present, and create a vision of inclusion and democracy.

Art Interpretation for Stephen Marc's digital photographs
Art interpretations are as complex and manifold as life, and writers should take divergent paths. No artwork contains a single meaning; some meanings are clearly presented on the surface, some veiled or implied, and some hidden deep within culture, memory, or the subconscious. Interpretative writing should be judged by how well it fits the overall vision and personality of the artist, by the clarity of our thoughts and writing, and by the quality of our research and supporting ideas.

How do writers move from describing elements of design to interpretation? What do the images suggest to the artist, writer, art critic, or to an art project sponsor such as Jamestown Community College.

Students are encouraged to be as spirited and creative as the artists they are writing about. Look, feel, and experience first-hand, then formulate a "gut reaction" to the artwork and the artist. Imagination is the mother of critical thinking; engage your imagination when writing interpretations! The process of writing about art should spark personal journeys, create understanding of the artist's creative processes, and challenge and expand perceptions and worldviews.

Stephen is a photographer who collects and edits thousands of images, a storyteller and narrator who enthusiastically engages others, and an historian who is persistent with his research and questions. His digital mastery, the large-scale photographs, the complex designs, and the weaving of hundreds of diverse people and places is provocative and draws viewers into his photographs. It is this diversity, weaving, and the "I and Thou" relationships that define his artistic vision. Stephen reveres all that he photographs - the people, the places, the symbols, and the stories they tell.

An artist's voice can be heard by reading the designs, forms, and symbols and by interpreting their meaning. Each of Stephens's montages represents picture memories stored on digital memory cards, like memories or dreams stored in the cells of our minds. In describing and interpreting Stephen's surreal montages, I first notice the overwhelming complexity of the design elements that are integrated by strong patterns and rhythms formed by close-up photographs of cornrows or braiding. Strong patterns unite his compositions by forming webs that bond hundreds of photographic memory/images.

Stephen's large triptych, located on the left brick wall as you enter the north entrance to the Hultquist Library, best illustrates this point. The girl's hair, in the far right image travels to the left - over three panels. Her Arabesque/Gothic locks form organic and geometric patterns and envelope the objects and personalities beyond the limits of her physical body. These arabesque patterns have traditionally symbolized masculine and feminine traits, or chaos and order. She could be compared to a nature goddess, or a wood nymph or spirit who connects and protects Jamestown's citizens. Local sculptor Dave Poulin; Governor Reuben Fenton; Underground Railroad personality Catherine D. Harris; arts patron and gardener Sarita Weeks; and a host of anonymous personalities - alive and deceased - are bonded by this web of hair.

In other images located on the right side of the library entrance, patterned braiding is magically transformed into the ground that figures stand on or into background spaces. In many instances, scalps become distinct patterns on anonymous heads. The interwoven patterns are reminiscent of African, Persian, and Celtic designs. Modern architectural elements of the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena and the classical St. Luke's colonnades form patterns that unify compositions and frame symbols, pictures, and personalities.

Stephen's images connect Jamestown's history and integrate its diversity -past, present, and future. The affluent and modest, the known and unknown, the young and old, and the accepted and marginal all reside in shared spaces - we are one! Jamestown's founder, James Prendergast; superstar television comedians Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; JCC's minority outreach counselor Isabelle Jackson; a local Italian shoe repair shop owner Busty; local historian Paul Leone; and Governor Fenton share the limelight with anonymous punk rockers, the Speedy Taco sandwich board guy, tattoo lovers, skate boarders, and menacing dogs. Stephen includes more than just the "beautiful people" or the "in-crowd;" his view is truly inclusive and democratic. Everyone is empowered. The montages project a "true cross section" of Jamestown's reality, without editing - this is not your sanitized tourists brochure or a new "American Gothic." The pig on a spit, the tattered flag, the pit bull, and those confronting eyes are all part of Stephen's "beautiful" reality.

Prominent places and architecture like the Jackson Center, Reg Lenna Civic Center, Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena, AME Zion Church, the skate board park, and First Street factories are among the featured sites. Stephen presents Jamestown as historical, old and worn, and new and evolving. Cultural events such as concerts and art openings at the Weeks Gallery, the Swedish Mid-Summer Festival, and the Juneteenth Celebration are included. Jamestown is known as one of the nation's top small town cultural centers.

The African American aesthetic, persona, and heritage are central to the interpretation of Stephen's images. Rhythms and patterns embody African imagery and music. We are forced to look, very closely at the skin of African Americans - intimately, as if under a magnifying glass. Few individuals want to be under a microscope or view another person this close. These threatening encounters are uncomfortable for most individuals, except for those who are truly intimate. Strangers rarely get this close. Close encounters are part of Stephen's comfortable zone and he likes this challenge. Stephen has a knack for breaking down barriers, and this closeness is important to the interpretation of his work. Self-discovery, intimacy, breaking down barriers, and fostering relationships are the essence of his work. Stephen aggressively, yet in an acceptable manner, engages his photographic subjects. This approach reflects who he is and is essential to his vision.

Stephen can quickly establish an "I and thou" relationship with the individuals he meets. His personal magnetism and charm define a charismatic personality. His quick smile, soothing voice, and engaging persona are immediately evident. He wants to get close, very close. It was this intimacy that first drew James Colby, director the exhibitions and galleries, to Stephen. "He knew many of my friends and their conversations frequently included smiles, engaging conversations, and laughter... His dynamic personality made him ideally suited for an artist-in-residency at Jamestown Community College," said James Colby.

Much of Stephen's career has focused on the discovery, research, and photo interpretation of an African American identity and history. His photographic book, The Black Trans Atlantic Experience: Street Life and Culture in Ghana, Jamaica, England, and the United States, published in 1992, is a personal "roots" journey. Grant Kester, author of "Selves Forgotten and Remembered: Stephen Marc's Soul Searching," (Exposure, 2002, volume35: 2) writes, "Marc's concern was to identify the common connections In dance, music, ceremony, and fashion that define black identity (which he refers to as the "collective family")... he writes oral history... these works are a form of visual storytelling... to Marc's own Soul Searching, we find a persistent concern with what might be termed the "narration" of self."

Stephen discovers himself through the communities he touches, and he helps communities discover who they are. As Stephen participated in JCC's Weeks Gallery residency, he became attached to our community, and refers to Jamestown as "my second home." He is discovering or "Soul Searching" his roots, but, more importantly, he is creating a future American identity, identities we are all creating in our imaginations.

Stephen Marc, a renowned digital photographer, is a full professor at Arizona State University’s Herberger College of Fine Arts, Tempe, where he teaches photography and digital imaging. He served on the National Advisory Board of the Society for Photographic Education, an interdisciplinary educational forum for the discussion of photography, as related to culture, history, scholarship, criticism, and expression. In the Camera Arts article (October/November, 2001), "Seismic Sightings: Black Photographers at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts," Mary Ann Lynch, a noted photographer, writer, and critic said, "Stephen Marc is a master of digital photography and of layering narrative content... he blends portraits into seamless creations."

Stephen, an energetic and prolific artist with an outgoing personality and impressive credentials, participated in two of Olympus America's exhibitions - Digital America and Worlds within Worlds. His digital montages from the Awakened in Buffalo series appeared on the front cover of the prestigious scholarly photography publication, Exposure (2002, Volume 35:2). This issue also includes Grant Kester's article, "Selves Forgotten and Remembered: Stephen Marc's Soul Searching." Stephen is gaining national attention for his Underground Railroad research and for his dynamic and provocative cultural montages.

He was awarded the Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship; the Visual Arts Fellowships, Arts Midwest; several artist fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council; and artist residencies from the Center for Photography at Woodstock and CEPA Gallery. His extensive exhibition record includes: Harvard University, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Cambridge MA; the Smithsonian Institution, The Center for African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago. IL; Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN; the Charles E. Culpepper Gallery, New York City; and the University of California, Berkeley Extension, San Francisco, CA. Stephen's digital montages are included in the collections of Princeton University, Brooklyn Museum, California Museum of Photography, Houston Museum of Fine Art, The National Museum of American Art, and the Free Library of Philadelphia.