Photographer Ann Marsden, who died last Sunday at 55, was an essential part of the performing-arts community in the Twin Cities.
Along with Michal Daniel, whose frenetic energy contrasts with Marsden's quiet intensity, she was the go-to photographer for many local theaters, dance companies and musicians.
Up until her diagnosis of cervical cancer in July 2010, there hardly was a week when I did not encounter an Ann Marsden image. Her photos often leapt above the promotional norm, as her subjects seemed to bare their souls to Marsden, conspiring to create provocative pictures that goaded, invited or seduced us into their worlds. Like most accomplished artists, she made her striking work look easy.
She did with her camera what directors do when they make their stage pictures. And she honored, and sometimes elevated, what they did by creating images reflecting essential moments.
But she was not limited to, or by, the stage. She photographed children, families and executives. She also photographed scenes in temples, street corners and wherever else she happened upon inspiration.
After her passing, many of her subjects have been updating their Facebook pages with a cavalcade of photos she took of them, a digital share-a-thon that unfurls Marsden's extensive network of friends and admirers as well as her keen eye.
There is actor Regina Marie Williams, her survivor's face not giving away any emotions in a still from Lynn Nottage's powerful war-and-prostitution-themed "Ruined." Marsden shot James A. Williams for Penumbra Theatre's "Fences," a simple image that telegraphed the whole story.
Other images include actor Stacia Rice at a moment that could have been captured somewhere in the Middle East: she melts into the blackness with everything covered but a slit of eyes. There is actor Molly Sue McDonald, facing us on the floor, in flight. There is a singing Austene Van at an old-style microphone in "Ain't Misbehavin'," captured looking inside-out as she spreads her flapper energy wide.
