Marvin Rhodes was born in Spearsville, Louisiana in 1949 and died in Atlanta in 2017. He was a friend and photographic mentor to gallery director Shawn Vinson, whom he entrusted to manage his photo archive after his passing.
We first featured Marvin's photographs at Vinson Gallery on the Decatur Square in the late nineties, when Atlanta Celebrates Photography was just starting. The gallery showed his expressive photographs of transvestites, Elvis impersonators, Vietnam veterans and everyday people he encountered on the street. He was fearless when approaching complete strangers to ask if he could take their pictures. He didn't need fancy cameras or expensive equipment to make his art, preferring instead to use a Polaroid or a Holga.