uncle charlie
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marc asnin
uncle
charlie : marc
asnin :
.
curated
by
bob
shamis
/
QCC
art
gallery
CUNY
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traveling exhibition
introduction : bob shamis
Honored and acclaimed long before the project was even completed, Uncle
Charlie is the culmination of more than thirty years of work by photographer Marc Asnin. This exhibition presents a richly textured portrait of
a very disturbed and extremely complex individual, Charles Henschke,
the photographer’s uncle and godfather. This body of work also serves as
a remarkable in-depth study of a family caught at the nexus of poverty
and mental illness. Given complete access and freedom to photograph,
Asnin rewards both his subjects and the viewers with images that are
compassionate and respectful, but at times searing in their intensity and
unflinching honesty.
As a child Asnin looked up to his uncle as a streetwise tough guy with a
gun. By the early 1980s when Asnin was studying photography, the reality
of his uncle’s life had trampled this boyhood fantasy.
Frail, depressed and emotionally vacant, unable to work, unable to even
leave his apartment, Charles Henschke was a shell of a human being. At
a point when Charles’ brother, sister, and wife had pretty much given up
on him, Asnin decided to make the attempt to reach out to his uncle.
Motivated by strong family ties and inspired by Bruce Davidson’s classic
photo essay East 100th Street, Asnin chose to use photography as the means
to reconnect with Charlie. Thus began a journey that became a nearly
quarter-century obsession to confront, examine, and understand some very
disturbing truths about his uncle and family.
:
uncle charlie
Uncle Charlie is an unprecedented long-term documentary project; but
this does not begin to describe the depth, revelations, and intimacy of
the images that have resulted. The raw emotions and dynamics of family
bonds are all played out in front of the camera, as we witness the heartrending
consequences of Charlie’s illness and his emotional void on the lives of
his children. Asnin’s dynamic images also give us a visceral sense of
Charlie’s self-confined world–his apartment and his neighborhood–in
which a disturbing family saga unfolds with the seeming inevitability of
a Greek tragedy.
With a minimum of background and description the viewer can follow
the narrative of Uncle Charlie in the approximately eighty black and
white photographs that will comprise the exhibition. However, the
photographer has assembled an extraordinarily rich collection of family
snapshots, recorded interviews, and other documentary material that
will be interspersed within the exhibition to augment and enhance the
portrait of Uncle Charlie.
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essay : marc asnin
uncle charlie
to share his story with? Ironically, Charlie has never expressed what he felt
about our relationship. As for me, was this photographic odyssey fueled
by my need to figure out what Charlie meant to me?
Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1960’s, you had to be tough. It was that
simple. Intimidation was a way of life and backing down was never an
option. Never. As a boy, I looked for a tough guy to emulate, a mentor of
the streets, so to speak. I found Uncle Charlie. Tough and tattooed, Uncle
Charlie spoke without apology, walked with a swagger, and always carried
his “Saturday Night Special.” To me, he was a real wise guy, a genuine
Brooklyn gangster, a dying breed of a Jewish “wise guy.” Through the eyes
of my childhood, Uncle Charlie’s life was captivating. His muscles, tattoos,
and street persona — he epitomized everything I wanted to be. That
boyhood image was shattered when I encountered Uncle Charlie as an
adult. I always thought Charlie’s life was a “Good Fellas” kind of story.
Instead, what I found was more like Waiting for Godot. The tough guy of
my childhood was now suffering from anorexia and was in a catatonic
state. In the face of schizophrenia, he was broken, a fragment of what I
remembered, a newly found “dark hero.” There was still an undeniable
connection between us as Godfather and Godson, our shared pasts a veil
through which we both looked upon the unsettling present. As different as
Uncle Charlie and I are, the two of us entered into a reciprocal relationship
over the last thirty years which resulted in this photographic essay.
I believe that the family can be viewed as a microcosm of society — the
power dynamics, relationships, and cycles of dysfunction or prosperity.
This uncompromising examination of my family, while unique in many
aspects, has a scope that incorporates us all. This is not only Uncle Charlie’s
story, it’s the story.
The only way I knew how to photograph my uncle was head on, neither
Charlie nor I shrunk from the hard truths. The images convey the complexity
of my Uncle Charlie; vain, hopeless, cruel, vulnerable, forgotten. He
wrestles with the consequences of a wasted life over which he never really
had full control, “a prisoner of my own mind.” Despite this darkness, we
become conscious of his resolve and determination. He was a resilient
survivor in the face of mental disability and crushing poverty. He managed
to raise five children single – handedly in a bleak urban landscape. The
images I made chronicle Uncle Charlie’s strained and fractured relationship
with his children who inherited his legacy of instability.
Charlie says he’s never had a friend, he’s never been a friend, and that his
life was always a momentary thing with people. Charlie often muttered
during my three decades of photographing him that, “Nothing’s changed.
I’ve come full circle. I’m still waiting for Godot.”
I have been wondering forever who I am in Uncle Charlie’s life. Did his
sister create the only friend he ever had? Was I the person he was waiting
uncle charlie
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uncle charlie
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review : daniel morris
...
As different as are
Uncle Charlie
and
Marc Asnin
the two men
have entered into a symbiotic relationship in which each lives through
the other or has benefited from the other’s presence over the last three
decades of the documentary project.
Asnin does
not
shy away from
chronicling
in graphic terms
Charlie’s
narcissism,
self-destructive macho persona,
lethargy,
and
daniel morris
quest for erotic stimulation
after weegee
through relationships
that borders on prostitution with
crack heads
essay on
contemporary jewish
.
american
photographers
/
syracuse university
press 2011.
uncle charlie
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review : michael kimmelman
review : michael kimmelman
There are
It is,
like Asnin,
frank
tough
but
few portraits
in recent
American photography
suffused with
more
intimate or remarkable
than Marc Asnin’s
Uncle Charlie
series
love and
awe
michael kimmelman
chief
art critic
...
.
/
the
new york
times
.
uncle charlie
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uncle charlie
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review : deborah willis
An
impressive
&
significant
deborah willis
2000
macarthur
fellow
/
art project
,
chair
photo
departmant
nyu
.
one
that
forces
us
to
look at humanity in various ways
.
Asnin is an exceptional photographer
one
who chronicles
family life
through the matrix of performance
and
private
life.
uncle charlie
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,
review : michel guerrin
No work
has
ever
mingled
privacy with photography
to such an extent
...
uncle charlie
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review : michel guerrin
you can clearly
feel
that
these images
build
an
in-depth portrait
of a certain
America
.
michel guerrin
le
monde
/
editor
cultural
section
.
uncle charlie
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uncle charlie
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review : a.d. coleman
Asnin’s abrasive
, wounded
study of his uncle
Charlie’s gradual descent
into
addiction
and
madness
...
carries with
it
a particularly wrenching poignancy
.
a.d. coleman
photo
critic
uncle charlie
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uncle charlie
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review : tony bannon
Some
photographers
,
some
artists,
even scientists,
are honored for their work
just by other
photographers, artists, and scientists,
but not by
the public at large.
Such is
the case for Asnin and his
devotion
to the image
of
Uncle Charlie
tony bannon
.
director
george eastman house
/
international
house of
photography
and film
director
.
uncle charlie
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bios and info
marc asnin
Marc Asnin is a renowned documentary photographer, having been published in numerous
publications including Life, Fortune, The New Yorker,
The New York Times Sunday Magazine, French Geo,
La Repubblica, Le Monde, and Stern. His work has
been exhibited in museums and galleries in the
United States and Europe, including the MOMA,
Baltimore Museum of Art, Moscow Museum of
Modern Art, Blue Sky Gallery and is also included
in several permanent collections, including the
National Museum of American Art, the International Center of Photography, the Museum of the
City of New York, the Portland Museum of Art,
the Zimmerli Art Museum and the Schomburg
Center. His work has received numerous accolades,
most notably the W. Eugene Smith Grant in
Humanistic Photography, the Mother Jones Fund
for Documentary Photography Grant, a National
Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the New York
Foundation for the Arts, and the Alicia Patterson
Fellowship. Asnin’s work has also appeared in
books such as The New York Times Magazine
Photographs (Aperture 2011), After Weegee
(Syracuse University Press 2011), New York 400
(Running Press, 2009), Blink (Phaidon Press, 1994),
Flesh & Blood (Picture Project 1992).
bob shamis
Bob Shamis is an independent curator, consultant,
and photographer. As an independent curator
he has organized photography exhibitions for
galleries and museums, including the National
Gallery of Canada and the George Eastman House.
In 1991 he was the first recipient of the Lisette
Model/Joseph G. Blum Fellowship in Photography
at the National Gallery of Canada. From 1998 to
2006 he was the Curator of Prints and Photographs
at the Museum of the City of New York where
he organized more than a dozen exhibitions
including New York Now 2000: Contemporary Work
in Photography; The Last Days of Penn Station:
Photographs by Aaron Rose; New Yorkers; Subway:
Photographs by Bruce Davidson and The Destruction
of Lower Manhattan: Photographs by Danny Lyon.
He is the author of New York In Color which was
published by Abrams Books. His latest book
project, a monograph on the American street
photographer Leon Levinstein, will be published
by Steidl Publishers in 2012.
the queensborough community college (qcc)
art gallery
The Queensborough Community College (qcc)
Art Gallery’s mission is to collect and preserve;
present and interpret; educate and motivate; and
stimulate new art production. The Gallery was
founded in 1966 by the first Chairman of the QCC
Department of Art and Design as an integral
part of the College's educational programming.
In 2004, a multi-million dollar renovation of the
QCC Art Gallery’s facility, the historic Oakland
building, created 2,500 square feet of exhibition
space, state- of-the-art temperature control, full
security, an art research library, and an intimate
25-seat theater.
The QCC Art Gallery has become a prominent
cultural beacon for the Queens community and
greater New York City metropolitan area, serving
approximately 10,000 attendees annually. By
presenting world-class exhibits and catalogue
publications of local, national, international, and
historical interest, it broadens appreciation and
understanding of art and artist-as-interpreter.
uncle charlie
The Gallery currently holds a collection of more
than 2,500 works by accomplished artists such
as Louise Nevelson, Gustav Klimt, Sol Lewitt,
Man Ray, John Coplans and Okada. Included
are traditional arts from the cultures of PreColumbian South America, Oceanic, and
Neolithic Chinese as well as more than 1,200
objects of African art, which comprise the critically
acclaimed permanent African art exhibition. In
2005, Holland Cotter of The New York Times
wrote, “Queensborough Community College
has quietly assembled an impressive collection
of African Art ... with luck, other university
galleries around the country will emulate it.”
Annually, the Gallery travels a series of work
from its permanent collection; one of our more
acknowledged traveling exhibitions is Memories
of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by photographer Danny Lyon.
contrastobooks
World-renowned and critically acclaimed publisher
announces the publication of Uncle Charlie to
accompany the traveling exhibition.
A leading point of reference for exceptional
photojournalism, Contrasto creates extraordinary
photography books by exceptional artists.
Bringing their experience in the fields of publishing and photography to serve photographers
and photography enthusiasts worldwide.
In addition to its permanent collection, the Gallery
also hosts world-class exhibitions that engage
thousands of QCC students and community members each year in new and innovative presentations.
Recent exhibits have included Andy Warhol’s
Graphic Works; Picasso Printmaker: A Perpetual
Metamorphosis from the Myra and Sandy Kirschenbaum
Collection; A Cameroon World: Art and Artifacts from
the Marshall and Caroline Mount Collection; and
Marching to the Freedom Dream: American Civil
Rights Movement 1958-65, a photographic essay by
Dan Budnik.
www.qccartgallery.org
The Gallery serves the many degree and continuing
education students at QCC each year, who come
to the College from across the Metropolitan area.
They come from over 130 different countries of
origin, as well as the broader community of Queens,
which is the nation’s most diverse county. The
Gallery engages these audiences with multiple
genres of art and culture through their exhibits,
lectures and our unique outreach activities.
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exhibition info
Number of works : 80 photographs and
collected ephemera
Space requirements : 345-400 linear feet
122 linear meters
Tour dates : Fall 2012 / 2017
Participation fee : $15,000
support materials
Book : Uncle Charlie
Publisher : Contrasto / 2012
Format : 220 x 300 mm
Extent : 320 pages
Printing : duotones
Binding : hard cover
Isbn-1: 9788869651779
For information about this traveling exhibition,
please contact:
Lisa Scandaliato
Exhibition Travel Coordinator
ucexhibition@gmail.com
or
1.718.631.6396
uncle charlie