Transitions - the Dresden project
American photographer Fredrik Marsh's images tell the story of the great societal upheaval at the end of the twentieth century from an unusual perspective. The project deals in general with the passing of time and with change. Marsh came to Dresden for the first time in 2002 and the idea for the Transitions: The Dresden Project, which would not be finally completed until 2006, came to the photographer in a process that can only be described as possessing its own momentum. Marsh had started to focus on German history in a downright unconventional manner. He developed quite a distinct and unusual interest in the remnants of recent, specifically East German history as well as in the changes wrought by the rebuilding and the renewal of Dresden following the peaceful revolution of 1989. He concentrated on the overlapping of different historical layers which he discovered in empty factory buildings, barracks and deserted old historic Dresden residences. He proceeded like an archaeologist who enters a new territory and secures evidence of former life without influencing it in any way. With his pictures, Fredrik Marsh pays reverence to the important, but also tragic past of this city. Marsh received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Transitions: The Dresden Project.
