Everyone has an unforgettable moment, a brief period of time that makes all the efforts of life "worth it."
Those moments don't get much better than winning a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship.
Professor Fredrik Marsh and his partner of 27 years, Ardine Nelson, were the first couple to receive individual Guggenheim fellowships in the same year for the same category.
"It's a real high point in my career. Frankly, I never expected to win. If you look back in my field of photography, it's daunting... There isn't much more for art folks," Marsh said.
Marsh received the award with his first application. Usually, a Guggenheim fellowship takes three or four attempts.
The professor has spent the past six summers in Germany photographing industrial landscapes in Dresden.
Moving between teaching during the school term and working on the Dresden project over breaks allowed him to watch the piece evolve and make necessary changes, like the addition of color.
"I would step away during fall quarter and then come back to it and think 'Oh my, this is what I accomplished'... I finally realized I needed to move to color," he said.
Applying for the fellowship was a relatively simple process. However, other visual artists submit slides of their work; photographers must submit original compositions.
Marsh submitted 20 pieces of 30 by 40 inch, color prints of German industrial landscapes.
He decided to continue the theme and style of his work in the city of Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province of China.
During the Lianzhou International Photography Festival, Marsh will be giving a public lecture in the Cultural Square and there will be a solo exhibition of his work from Dresden.
"I want to make a connection with post-Cold War Germany to China. China is a juggernaut. We are unleashing the West...It's really scary what's going on in China," he said.
His work started off with specific landscapes, and ended up becoming "very universal statements," said Marsh.
The project funded by the Guggenheim fellowship is titled "Vanishing Voices, Disappearing Neighborhoods: The Price of Modernization in China."
Marsh will be capturing the effect of modernization on old neighborhoods in Guangzhou. The old cultural neighborhoods are being destroyed by the Chinese governments in their efforts to "smash the old and build the new," as Marsh described it.
Along with video, audio and photographic work, he may include some oral history as well.
"I've got to get there as soon as possible," Marsh said. "I've got to get shooting." t&c;
