The tragic life of Montreal photographer David W. Marvin

  Montreal photographer David W. Marvin, who died in 1975, is being celebrated for his pictures chronicling the world of Griffintown in his too-short and far-too-tragic life, which saw him produce great photos in spite of being deaf and homeless.

Marvin in a self-portrait shot on Young St. in 1970 McCord Museum, Notman Photographic Archives

   Marvin's work is being displayed at the McCord Museum as well as in an outdoor exhibit on McGill College, the work of a team that includes the passionate local historian Arwen Fleming who spent years studying the incredibly tragic life that Marvin lived before dying at 45.
   Marvin's life was told in an artsy 1982 movie Albedo, featuring Pierre Foglia.
   Marvin was born in Nova Scotia. He was orphaned after going deaf at age 10 due to Scarlet Fever. An older brother who flew planes in WWII helped support his siblings who settled in Montreal. (continued below)
 

 David Marvin then underwent a series of botched operations, one which cost him the little hearing he had left, the other which cost him a perfectly good lung.
   Nonetheless Marvin worked nights as a proofreader at The Montreal Star and chronicled Griffintown for the Unity newspaper, which was published from 1955 by the Benedict Labre House.
  He died by his own hand in 1975 after his health continued to decline, leaving a son and widow.
  Most copies of the Unity newspaper have been lost, particularly during the 1969-72 period when it was publishing provocative work in its four editions per year.
  To make matters worse, many of Marvin's photos and a manuscript history of Griffintown he penned were claimed in a fire after his death.      His wife and a brother also died prematurely in tragic circumstances but his one child, a son, assisted Fleming going through 6,000 photos to compile the exhibit.
 

Image: Arwen Fleming

  The photos in the exhibit contain, "great views of Montreal's streets, including its working class neighbourhoods, and striking scenes of the dramatic social and architectural changes that were taking place during the 1960s and 70s," said Fleming, an MA grad student in Communication sat Concordia and part time curator at the McCord.