Marcus and Travis

Artist Bill Bamberger American, born 1956

Date2000; printed 2005

MediumGiclée digital print

DimensionsPaper: 49 1/4 x 44 in. (125.1 x 111.8 cm)
Image: 42 x 42 in. (106.7 x 106.7 cm)
Frame: 56 1/4 x 50 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. (142.9 x 127.6 x 6.4 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art

Object number2005.2.1

On View

Not on view

Label TextBill Bamberger’s documentary photography projects look closely at aspects of contemporary American life with an unflinching and compassionate eye. The four works acquired by the Museum are from an ongoing series, Boys Will Be Men, which he started in the 1980s. The works on view were taken at an urban high school—Flint Central High School, in Michigan—where the majority of the student body was African American and working class.

In Bamberger’s words, “Boys Will Be Men is about the culture of maleness. The work is concerned with how boys relate, their simultaneous camaraderie and isolation, and their view of themselves as shaped by their expectation of what it is to be a man.”

Bamberger’s photographs are evidence of his profound interest in his subjects, his investment in his relationships with them, and the extreme sensitivity and insight he has in interpreting their lives through his photographs. His total immersion in a community enables him to create emotive and compelling portraits that reveal a genuine and equal relationship between photographer and subject.
[L. Dougherty, 2010]ProvenanceCreated Flint, MI, 2000, printed 2005; collection of the artist; sold to NCMA, 2005.
Published ReferencesBill Bamberger, Boys Will Be Men (exhibition catalogue) (Flint, MI: Flint Institute of Arts, 2002), illus. front cover.
Exhibition HistoryFlint, MI, Flint Institute of Arts, "Boys Will Be Men," May 17-July 21, 2002, illus. front cover.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Contemporary NC Photography from the Museum's Collection," (part 2) November 19, 2006-February 18, 2007.

Winston-Salem, NC, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), "Contemporary North Carolina Photographs from the North Carolina Museum of Art," October 28, 2007-March 2, 2008.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Close to Home,” August 18, 2013–February 9, 2014.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “The Energy of Youth: Depicting Childhood in the NCMA’s Photography Collection,” September 26, 2015–April 3, 2016.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “To Be Young: Coming of Age in the Contemporary” [Part 1], April 3, 2021–September 26, 2021. Object Rights Statement

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