NEW YORK, NY.- Caleb Cain Marcus, a photographic artist living in New York City, has a practice rooted in photography and centered around the tangible presence of space as a connector with the universe. In his critically acclaimed book, A Portrait of Ice (Damiani, 2012), Cain Marcus used the vertical frame to capture sublime images of glaciers and began his study of color. In Goddess (Damiani, 2014), his transcendental photographs taken along the Ganges river explored how space can be defined using light, color and atmospheric conditions.

In A brief movement after death (Damiani, October 2018), Cain Marcus' fourth monograph, the photographer pushes deeper still with his masterful use of color to imagine what the release of energy from the body into the universe might look like when we die. The painterly images, which are rendered in exquisite hues of blue, orange, green, violet and grey, were taken along the coasts of New York and California and contain sky and ocean - immense bodies of space that we can lose ourselves in, becoming part of their vastness.

The genesis of the work is personal. With the birth of his daughter, Cain Marcus' death suddenly felt very near. His childhood questions about what happens when we die resurfaced and he began to think about how to visually represent what occurs after death. He wondered, could the façade of our earthbound reality dissolve to give way to something that is truly extraordinary?

He writes: "As I watched my daughter interact with the world, I saw how many experiences were ahead of her that I'd already lived. She was moving toward life in all its brilliance and I toward death."

A brief movement after death - The Process
Cain Marcus applies physical intervention to the photographic paper of each digital print to create a unique piece of art. This is done with a grease pencil attached to a string that he swings over the image like a pendulum to make tightly grouped marks on its surface. These markings, that resemble a swarm of fireflies or detritus from a fireworks display, reference the finite quantity of time in a lifespan as they move across the paper as if in a formation of flight leaving the earth. The work combines the illusion of space in photography with the concrete space of the physical mark. Each work is then photographed for the book.

In his next series, in progress, Cain Marcus continues his new practice with his artistic reaction to the results of the 2016 Presidential Election. The working title of the series is "divided."

Caleb Cain Marcus has a practice stemming from photography that is centered around color which he explores through material and surface. His work juxtaposes the uniformity of the inkjet medium with hand applied mediums that vary based on the speed, pressure and angle of the gesture that touches the paper. Together they produce color that is immersive, sensory and poetic.

Caleb Cain Marcus' work has been shown in solo exhibitions that include: A Portrait of Ice at the Ross Museum, Ohio (2013) and National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. (2014) and Goddess at Clic Gallery, New York (2015). Selected group shows include: The Armory Show at Howard Greenberg Gallery (2013), Seeing Glacial Time at Tufts Art Gallery, Boston (2014), In the Wake at Houston Center for Photography, Houston (2016), and Photography of Place at Palm Beach Photographic Centre, West Palm Beach (2017).

His photographs have been published in Orion, PDN, Conde Nast Traveler, Polka, Fisheye, The Scotsman, Time Lightbox, Smithsonian, Hyperallergic, National Geographic and Slate, among other outlets internationally.

Cain Marcus' work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the High Museum of Art and others. He holds an MFA from Columbia University. He lives and works in New York City.

Caleb Cain Marcus Books:
Robert Frank wrote an introduction to his first book, The Silent Aftermath of Space, (Damiani, 2010) which depicted black and white photographs of desolate spaces in New York City.

In A Portrait of Ice (Damiani, 2012), Cain Marcus used the vertical frame to capture sublime photographs of glaciers with no visible horizon and began his study of color. The project was made over two years in Iceland, Norway, New Zealand and Alaska.

In Goddess (Damiani, 2014), transcendental photographs from Cain Marcus' 1,500 miles trek along the Ganges river explored the way space can be defined and described in landscapes using light, color and atmospheric conditions.

A brief movement after death (Damiani, 2018) explores the afterlife through color, surface and the integration of hand-applied mediums.

Anthologies with selected images by Cain Marcus include: Full of Grace (PowerHouse, 2006), Shared Space (Damiani, 2009) and The Dog in Photography (Taschen, 2018).