It is one of my earliest memories.
We are in our little wood frame house on Atlantic Street in Shreveport, Louisiana. It is summer. My mother is cleaning up from dinner. My two older brothers, John and David, have been "excused" and headed off into the long summer evening for an adventure on their bicycles. My little sister, Mary, is playing with her "dollies."
Jack Marshall, my dad, is in his element.
With Mom at work in the kitchen, Dad is using the last few hours of the day to indulge his passion, photography. He has cleared off one side of the dining room, leaving a perfect, clean, white wall to use as a backdrop. He sets up the incandescent lights, stringing together extension cords. He gets my mother's low makeup bench from the bedroom and places it in front of the lights. He mounts his trusted Rolleiflex twin lens camera on the tripod. I am watching his every move, knowing what is coming next. He tells me to sit on the bench. He wants to "take my picture."
Here you see the result of that portrait session in July of 1959. One of literally thousands of photographs he took of us kids, our mother, our cousins, our classes, first communions, graduations, birthday parties and sports teams over the years.
The chronicle of our family life is only a small part of the body of work that is now The Jack Marshall Collection™. I have embarked upon a project to publish most, if not all, of the pictures he took until his death at age 55 on this very day in July of 1976. Pictures that include not only the mundane and usual parts of our everyday life, seen through his quite remarkable photographer's eye, but also the spectacular, from the quiet beauty of Louisiana's antebellum plantation homes and the New Orleans French Quarter to the majesty of the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains.
My mother and my brothers and sister are pleased to share with you this remarkable collection of photographs. The Jack Marshall Collection™ represents not only a wonderful slice of Americana, but also a unique and unforgettable treasure trove of breathtaking photography.
To us, he was simply "Dad." But when you see these photographs you will begin to understand what we knew all along. That Jack Marshall was an intelligent, sensitive, gifted artist, truly one of the best of his time. We sincerely hope you enjoy the photographs.
-Tom Marshall, New York City
