Today, Feb. 3, 2011, would have been Jim’s 75th birthday.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, Jim was amazingly sweet about some things, and remembering birthdays was toward the top of that list. I remember he would make a big deal about mine and then get rather morose around his own; I chalked it up to the age difference and the struggles to get his career back on track.
I met Jim Marshall in March of 1984. I was a journalism student at SF State in need of a last-minute subject for a “Whatever Happened to…” profile in John Burks’ advanced magazine writing course. I was 19 and, basically, clueless about a lot of things. Like, who the hell was Jim Marshall?
Another j-school student who knew of Jim’s work and his “dark side,” suggested Jim as a subject after I had my first interviewee fall through; I wish I could remember that guy’s name (Steve? Dave? John?) … anyway, he changed my life.
Welcome to the official blog of Jim Marshall Photography LLC. My name is Michelle Margetts and I’ll be serving as lead writer and editor of this conversation, pulling from my 25-year relationship with Jim and Amelia Davis’ encyclopedic knowledge of him and his body of work and, we hope, your stories, anecdotes and ideas, as well. Jim was without a doubt one of the biggest technophobes I have ever met. He loved beautifully constructed, elegant MACHINES.
