Marietta Now & Past is a collection of historical images of Marietta Ohio merged with the present day. There are eight different compositions created, highlighting different areas or events that happened downtown. I have always taken inspiration from perspective and history plays a big role in how you view the world around you. Images of Marietta were captured by Harry Philip Fisher, a famous local photographer, and I merged them with present day images I have taken. The compositions that I developed accompany a book I wrote discussing my perspective on my hometown and the significance I find in the details of these images.
I have been lucky enough to live in the same place for my whole life and I have experienced many things that have influenced how I feel about this town. My goal was to create connections and visualize Marietta through a different lens allowing for a deeper appreciation of our history. To show these connections I researched and collected images taken by a famous local photographer, Harry Philip Fischer, and combined them with the present-day images I photographed. I tell a story within the pages of my book and the images I created. This project was developed to not only show an intersection of streets, but an intersection of time captured and the mark we all leave.
The historic images were provided by the Marietta College Legacy Library Special Collections. They worked with me to find images I could use to show how times have changed over Marietta's history and show what has stayed the same. I have been fascinated by the history of Marietta and feel that this part of our identity needs to be shown. You hear about the floods and can see the markers, you can see the old structures, and the historical places, yet you never see what Marietta looked like years ago. I wanted to create a connection between the past and the present to show what has changed and what remains.
I had the “light bulb” moment to create these works when I first sat between the stacks of history in the Legacy Library holding these artifacts between my fingers for a previous class project. I had found the piece of history I had longed for and realized how other people could feel the same way I did and have a desire to create a deeper relationship with Marietta. I have always loved to tell stories and I found my voice within this project. The people captured in this image left their mark in this space. They have been preserved through time and live on through these images. I made the decision to include parts of myself throughout the work I did for this project. I left my artist's mark just as these people had left their impression within the images from the past. I included marks I made in the present uniting these moments in time while connecting my purpose in making this project. I include my handwriting on the images I created, just as the original photographer had done to mark where he captured each moment in time. Throughout the book I use my handwritten ampersands to connect my hand to the work I have produced. This project is a very personal part of myself—it is my perspective, my interpretation, and a part of the mark I leave.
Our history is forever evolving, and I think there is something meaningful in remembering and observing the past. As I worked with these images, I was diligent in preserving their original integrity. The photographs from present day were taken from similar angles and perspectives to best represent the passage of time. When the images were combined, I was able to bring elements from the past and the present into their opposite times to create cohesive compositions. I highlighted elements from the past throughout my process as I constructed perspectives that complemented the story I wanted to tell. I was inspired by the elements highlighted within these eight images which stand alone as a representation of time and space. These works are not just representational, but they are an extension of my experiences which has influenced my perspective and the story I tell in this project.
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