In the summer of 1978, John Leni Marcy began his photographic work in Holyoke. His first pictures, made with a 35mm Olympus OM1 camera, were of old mill buildings, bridges and canals. The six or so years of photographic work from which this exhibition was taken had its beginning as Mr. Marcy was leaving Holyoke. As he approached Newton Street, he saw a teenage boy doing wheelies up the hill on his BMX bike framed by a beautiful old advertisement painted on the side of a brick building. He took out his camera and took a photograph. This was witnessed by some other children, who asked him to take their pictures. He made prints and gave them to the young people he had photographed. He resolved to pursue this new connection and see where it might take him.

This exhibit of a portion of Marcy’s work was curated and captioned in 2022 by students in Latinx Literature and Latinx Politics classes at Holyoke Community College, under the direction of Raúl D. Gutiérrez and Mark S. Clinton, respectively. It was funded by a Holyoke History Room grant from the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries.

Captions, introduction and a curatorial essay were written by the student curators. All Materials were translated by Professor Idoia Martínez del Mozo.

Celebrate this exhibition by joining us for a closing reception on October 20, 2023 7-9 p.m. Refreshments will be provided, and all visitors are welcome to join Gallery Director, Rachel Rushing at 8:30 p.m. for a darkroom printing demonstration.