FALL 2014

WOMEN OF MARWENCOL: RECENT PHOTOGRAPHS

BY MARK HOGANCAMP

Our Fall 2014 edition features six stunning recent images (reproduced as full-color 27" x 36" posters) by Mark Hogancamp as well as a booklet packaged in a custom-designed slipcase.

Nearly a decade ago, Esopus debuted Hogancamp’s photographs of Marwencol, the imaginary town he built to 1/6th- scale in his backyard to help recover—emotionally and physically—from a brutal attack that left him with significant brain damage. Hogancamp populated the town with Barbie dolls and military figurines representing himself, his friends, and even his attackers and began documenting their activities through a series of striking photographs. Esopus subscriber Jeff Malmberg was inspired enough by the piece to make the acclaimed 2010 documentary Marwencol, which brought Hogancamp’s fascinating story to a wider audience. That audience will only expand further when the Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away) makes Hogancamp’s life and work the subject of an upcoming feature film that is currently in pre-production.

Hogancamp has continued to photograph Marwencol. The images featured in the Esopus edition, which depict a number of the town’s female inhabitants—ranging from Hogancamp’s mother, Edda, to the “Belgian Goddess of Youth” Deja Vu—represent some of his strongest, most beautiful work to date, and exhibit his “uncanny feel for body language, psychology, and stage direction” (Jerry Saltz, The Village Voice).

In conjunction with the release of the edition, Esopus co-presented an exhibition of Hogancamp’s work at Pioneer Works Center for Arts and Innovation in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The exhibition, Women of Marwencol, featured large-scale prints of the images reproduced in the Esopus edition along with other photographs—curated by Janet Hicks, director of One Mile Gallery in Kingston, NY—including early works documenting the fascinating origins of the town as well as brand-new photographs by Hogancamp featuring life-size mannequins. The exhibition ran from November 7th to December 13th, and Pioneer Works also presented a screening of the Marwencol documentary on November 15, at 7pm, which included a reception with Hogancamp in attendance.

There are a limited number of signed copies of the edition available in exchange for $250 donations to the Esopus Foundation Ltd. Find out more here.