Art Chowder January | February 2017, Issue 7 | Page 18
lished world professionals in
a mentoring environment to
lift them up and encourage
them to elevate their crafts
to the highest standard. I
worked with ‘Talent Campus” for two more years, and
at each of the festivals the
directors from their Berlin
headquarters visited Guadalajara to observe the proceedings, and one of them
approached me and told me
that they liked my work far
better than their own photographers, and that if I was
ever in Europe to give them
a call!
My tour of duty had come
to a close in Mexico, and so
after ten wonderfully absorbing and rewarding years
I returned home to Spokane.
After only a few months I
discovered that the Berlin
International Film Festival
was soon to take place, so I
called them and reminded
them ‘”remember when you
said whenever I’m in Europe? and they immediately
replied ‘you’re hired!’”
Marshall’s return to Germany as a hired photographic
professional had also elevated his status by working
not only for the Berlin International Film Festival, but
also closely with the nation’s
dignitaries. Because this festival holds such a high level
of status and importance
Marshall was photographing and becoming very recognized and respected by
notables like the Mayor, the
Governor of the State and
Senate members.
Being a significant part of
the festival he was granted
a much higher budget to
achieve his and their goals,
so alongside his main role
Marshall also set about trying to establish an additional project, which, by his own
admission,
18 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE
“almost got there but
never quite made it!”
“It was coincidentally around this time
that I received a call from my mother
who realized that I had a pause in my
schedule and asked me if I might consider returning to Spokane, and since I
felt I hadn’t spent much time with her as
an adult I knew the time was right. Being back home I began closely looking
around the city from a new perspective
and realized that culturally it offered
many opportunities for me to creative a
localized community based project, and
the seed for ‘Spokane Fifty - Faces Shaping Our City’ began to be germinated. As
I looked around I saw Spokane people
contributing and being active in many
different fields, and this activity became
the genesis for my proposed publication.”
Marshall began by inviting local people
to contact him and nominate residents
they recognized as having an impact in
and around Spokane for the betterment
of our community. He then set about
meeting with them, photographing their
faces and gathering quotes from them
to include with their images. Marshall
then collected all the material he needed to create and publish his first edition,
which was presented in a large format,
320-page, hard-back, full color volume.