Marc Asnin on ‘Uncle Charlie’

The Takeaway

We all have that member of the family who doesn’t quite live up to the family name. Maybe it’s an aunt who drinks too much or a cousin who has a rap sheet. Maybe it’s a black sheep who can’t quite get his life together. Maybe it’s even you.
In Marc Asnin’s family, that person is his godfather, Charles Henschke. As a child, Marc looked up to him. But right around the time that young Marc began studying photography, he came to realize that Uncle Charlie was a deeply flawed man. Using his new skills behind the camera, Marc began to document his relationship with Charlie, and he continued to photograph Charlie for thirty years.
Marc recently compiled some of those photos, alongside diary entries, archival documents, psychiatrists’ reports, and police arrest records in a new book called “Uncle Charlie.”

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