Dodge & Burn: Marcus Tanner

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Marcus Tanner, My friend Dr. McBride, 1952 Bull Riding Champ of Colorado, c-print, courtesy the artist.
Marcus Tanner, My friend Dr. McBride, 1952 Bull Riding Champ of Colorado, c-print, courtesy the artist.

Marcus Tanner makes refreshingly unselfconscious pictures of people, places and things around Atlanta.  He is a storyteller and a comedian; the pictures have a compassionate outspokenness often missing from contemporary photographic portraiture.  Marcus describes his process as intuitive, specifically “a gonzo-approach to snapping photographs…I document randomly and deliberately.”  He also refers to his work as having a “Southern Vernacular” style that he directs toward the black experience, evident from what collectively seems like a photographic adventure of different Atlanta neighborhoods. The pictures are humorous, raw, intimate and honest, and reveal, as he says, “some residual pain and struggle from Atlanta’s history of racism.”  Marcus is primarily interested in pictures that prick and lack artifice; he wants to “make people think about the human experience in an unpretentious way.”
Marcus Tanner, PUSHING THROUGH THE HOOD ON DIRT BIKES, c-print, courtesy the artist.
Marcus Tanner, PUSHING THROUGH THE HOOD ON DIRT BIKES, c-print, courtesy the artist.

 
Marcus Tanner, POLO WITH A HIGH TOP FADE, c-print, courtesy the artist.
Marcus Tanner, POLO WITH A HIGH TOP FADE, c-print, courtesy the artist.

 
Marcus Tanner, MECHANIC WANTED, YOU CAN BE ON ANY DRUG EXCEPT CRACK, c-print, courtesy the artist.
Marcus Tanner, MECHANIC WANTED, YOU CAN BE ON ANY DRUG EXCEPT CRACK, c-print, courtesy the artist.

 
Marcus Tanner, A young man in deep thought, c-print, courtesy the artist.
Marcus Tanner, A young man in deep thought, c-print, courtesy the artist.

Marcus Tanner has been making pictures in Atlanta for the last three years, his work can be seen in publications like Vice magazine and recently exhibited at Mint Gallery. Marcus holds a BA in psychology. Currently he is refurbishing and customizing old polaroid cameras and working as a freelance photographer in Atlanta. 

 
 
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