Every Paul | Anthony Marchetti - South x Southeast photomagazine

In 1945, my maternal grandmother and her family fled Hungary as Russian armies advanced from the east. They traveled through Austria to Germany, eventually settling in a displaced-persons camp in Munich. There, my grandmother met and became engaged to a Hungarian man named Paul. When sponsorship to the U.S. opened, my grandmother left with her family, certain her fiancé would follow.

During transatlantic passage, my grandmother was ill with symptoms of early pregnancy, ultimately leading to my mother’s birth. My grandmother’s fiancé never came to America nor did they meet again. This work attempts to visualize and reconstruct a past and a world that no longer exists except in relatively few place markers, carried objects, and memories.

I began this project by retracing a possible path for my grandmother’s refugee flight. Traveling from her home, Szeged, Hungary, to Munich, I photographed found shelters, remnants of Russian occupation, and other post-war landscapes. The resulting images are an emotive attempt to explore memory and place, and serve as a backdrop for this implied narrative.

As a 2016 Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, I shifted my focus directly to Paul, my grandmother’s fiancé, whose actual existence was revealed in two found documents and three family snapshots. My challenge was making a deceased and little-known person, more concrete. This inspired me to photograph several elderly Hungarian men, Paul’s ‘contemporaries’, if he were still alive. In these portraits, all titled, ’Paul,’ the men are visual replacements for my grandfather. Other images show clothing that match Paul’s attire in family photographs. These fictive elements blend truth and fiction and enable photography to create narrative where gaps exist.

-Anthony Paul Marchetti

Please click on the photographs for captions.

Every Paul – a composite of the three family ‘snapshots’ that remain of Paul, my grandmother’s fiancé ©Anthony Marchetti

Grandma – portrait of my maternal grandmother, Marica ©Anthony Marchetti

Kiskundorozsma – photographs made while following the path my grandmother and her family traveled during their refugee flight from Hungary ©Anthony Marchetti

Sankt Leonard Am Forst – photographs made while following the path my grandmother and her family traveled during their refugee flight from Hungary ©Anthony Marchetti

Passau – photographs made while following the path my grandmother and her family traveled during their refugee flight from Hungary ©Anthony Marchetti

Rechle – photographs made while following the path my grandmother and her family traveled during their refugee flight from Hungary ©Anthony Marchetti

Paul 1 – portraits of elderly Hungarian men, Paul’s ‘contemporaries’, if he were still alive; visual replacements for my grandfather ©Anthony Marchetti

Paul 2 – portraits of elderly Hungarian men, Paul’s ‘contemporaries’, if he were still alive; visual replacements for my grandfather ©Anthony Marchetti

Paul3 – portraits of elderly Hungarian men, Paul’s ‘contemporaries’, if he were still alive; visual replacements for my grandfather ©Anthony Marchetti

Paul’s coat – refugee documents state that Paul served as a dentist in the DP camp where he met my grandmother, the bag is a fabricated piece of his belongings; the coat matches Paul’s coat in the few family snapshots that remain, obtained from an Hungarian movie studio’s prop warehouse ©Anthony Marchetti

Paul’s bag – refugee documents state that Paul served as a dentist in the DP camp where he met my grandmother, the bag is a fabricated piece of his belongings; the coat matches Paul’s coat in the few family snapshots that remain, obtained from an Hungarian movie studio’s prop warehouse ©Anthony Marchetti

Soviet Factory – Hungary was occupied by the Russians until 1989, many abandoned Soviet structures are found throughout the country. ©Anthony Marchetti

Artist Bio:

Anthony Marchetti completed a BA at Gustavus Adolphus College and an MFA at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is a full-time faculty member at Anoka-‐Ramsey Community College.

A four-‐time Minnesota State Arts Board recipient, two-‐time Bush Fellowship finalist, and a McKnight fellow in 2007 and 2013, his work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, including: the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum; Minnesota Museum of American Art; Rochester Center for the Arts; Vermont Center for Photography; Momenta Art, Brooklyn, New York; the Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco; and Casa del Tunel, Tijuana, Mexico. His work is in the permanent collection of the Weisman Art Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Gustavus Adolphus College, and the Hungarian Multicultural Center.

In 2016, Marchetti was a Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, Hungary, where he taught at the Moholy-‐Nagy University of Art and Design and continued work on his current project that explores his maternal grandmother’s flight from Europe following World War II.

Contact Info:

Anthony Marchetti

1812 Washington Street NE

Minneapolis, MN 55418

(651) 253-1364

anthonypaulmarchetti@gmail.com

www.anthonymarchetti.com

Nancy McCrary

Nancy is the Publisher and Founding Editor of South x Southeast photomagazine. She is also the Director of South x Southeast Workshops, and Director of South x Southeast Photogallery. She resides on her farm in Georgia with 4 hounds where she shoots only pictures.

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Every Paul | Anthony Marchetti