Marc Asnin at Ampersand

I wasn’t sure what to expect before going to a talk with Marc Asnin at Ampersand Books, in Portland, Oregon today. Just last night, we melted into an audience of three hundred listening to the charming and personable Alec Soth. Alec magically converted the expansive auditorium into an intimate coffee nook in which he and each listener sat together to laugh over the events of the last few days, weeks, and years.  

Marc Asnin, with his booming Brooklyn accent brought together a small group of childhood friends, or at least that’s how he made me feel, sitting among the strangers at the filled to the brim gallery and bookstore. He spoke of his project Uncle Charlie with a painful kind of sincerity.  I was swept up in the way he strung his words together; carefully and openly he expressed his misgivings, his regrets, and anger. As he spoke, Uncle Charlie, though he is almost three thousand miles away in Brooklyn, seemed to sneer at everyone from the corner of the room. His photographs speak for themselves, I hope you take the time to glance through them, The New Yorker did a lovely spread of this project. As for myself, I’m just glad I got to be in included in that group of childhood friends speaking honestly about life, changes, aspirations, and death. 

​My notes from Marc Asnine's talk (and a delightfully off sketch of the gent himself).