When you see a reference to Marcia Resnick, it’s most likely as a photographer, which she is.
Essays will also refer to her as a conceptual artist, which is true as well. But at her core, Resnick is a storyteller. She has been telling stories visually from the time she was ten years old, when she created her own version of “Oliver Twist” complete with drawings that incorporated text.
In the mid-70s, she began to self publish photo books such as “See” and “Landscape” which, although they did not have any accompanying words, revealed their backstory through the order and juxtaposition of the images. Even the numerous life-size vintage dolls presently in her West Village apartment look as if they all have their own secrets.
Resnick, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, graduated from James Madison High School in the number two spot; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was number one. She went to college at age 16 1/2, where she became interested in photography.
Resnick’s first foray into the field was less than auspicious; her attempt at developing the film that she shot at the 1968 Columbia University riots ended in disaster. It turned out that when the chemicals are too hot, the film disintegrates.
But she persisted, moving on from her grandfather’s “terrible” Argus C4 to her first Nikon, with some worthwhile ambitions.
“I started to know what would happen in that rectangle if I looked at things in various ways. I wanted to make images that were beautiful to me, with elements of curiousness, mystery and intrigue,” she recalls, adding, “ and definitely not boring.”
Resnick’s first gig out of college was teaching at Queens College, the first of seven different educational institutions where she has been employed. In those days, you could afford to buy a 2,000 square foot loft on Canal Street on a teacher’s salary, and she managed to hold onto it from 1975 until 1990.
Those were also the days when you could walk backstage…
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