Frank Marshall (born 30 July 1985) is a South African photographer mostly concerned with portraiture and the photography of music and known for his work on portraying heavy metal

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

in Botswana. He is represented by Rooke Gallery,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, South Africa.

Life and career

Early life

Frank Marshall was born on 30 July 1985 in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa as the child of an Irish father and a South African mother. He grew up in Kroonstad, Free State and

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

, Gauteng. As a teenager Marshall started to show interest in hard rock and heavy metal music, mostly influenced by established American bands.

Education

After finishing high school Marshall started his studies of photography at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria in 2007. In 2010 he obtained his

Bachelor of Technology A Bachelor of Technology (Latin ''Baccalaureus Technologiae'', commonly abbreviated as B.Tech. or BTech; with honours as B.Tech. (Hons.)) is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after the completion of a three to five-year program of st ...

degree in photography from Tshwane University. For his final year thesis Marshall portrayed people of Botswana's heavy metal subculture and put the images together in his exhibition "Renegades". For his work on "Renegades" he was nominated as one of ten finalists of the

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

World Photography Awards Student Focus Competition. He was the first South African to reach the finals of the renowned photography competition. As a finalist he was allowed to take part in the World Photography Festival at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

, London and to attend talks, lectures and master classes held by distinguished photographers and World Photographic Academy members. He was accepted for a Master's degree programme in photography at Tshwane University but quit University to start working as a photographer.

Renegades

Renegades is Marshall’s first and so far only photographic solo exhibition which immediately earned him national and international attention. In 2008 Marshall was hired to accompany and shoot a South African heavy metal band at a performance in Botswana's capital

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

where he first came in touch with the local heavy metal subculture. In 2009 he decided to make these people the subject of his final year thesis at Tshwane University and finished the series in 2010. It consists of 60 posed environmental portraits and is meant to represent and transmit ideologies of heavy metal subculture in Botswana. The portraits are shot with two analogue cameras, a Hasselblad 500 CM and a Hasselblad 500 EL/M on Fujichrome Provia 100F film. 'Death' by Frank Marshall

Exhibitions

Renegades was shown at various national and international galleries * Rooke Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa: July – August 2011 * Jo'burg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa: September 2011 * Bekris Gallery, San Francisco, US: November: 2011 – January 2012 * M.I.A Gallery,

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

, USA: September 2013 Works from the Renegades series have also been acquired for the permanent collection of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

and two prints are in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, USA.

Awards

* Finalist of the Sony World Photography Awards Student Focus Competition 2011 The competition is seen as the most high-profile student photography award. It is open to every institution worldwide that teaches photography at higher education level. In 2011 over 200 institutions from six continents participated in the competition. The shortlist of ten finalists was chosen by a jury of renowned photography artists and photo journalists including Deborah Willis, Eder Chiodetto or Roger Tooth.

References

External links

Frank Marshall homepage

Rooke Gallery

''Renegades'' exhibition catalogue (pdf)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Frank South African photographers Living people 1985 births Tshwane University of Technology alumni