Uncle Charlie, an unprecedented long-term documentary project & book that details the life of the artist’s uncle and godfather, Charles Henschke. It portrays Charlie’s struggle with mental illness, isolation, poverty and familial relationships. Asnin chose to use photography as the means to reconnect with Uncle Charlie. The result is a journey that became an obsession to confront, examine, and understand disturbing truths about his uncle and family. 

Asnin received various awards including the W. Eugene Smith Grant, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Mother Jones Documentary Award, and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship while doing this project.

Marc Asnin has been photographing Uncle Charlie for thirty years. By the early 1980s when Asnin was studying photography, the reality of his uncle’s life had trampled his boyhood admiration. As a child Asnin was inspired by Uncle Charlie as a streetwise strong guy with a gun. Charlie and his five children (Charles, Joe, Brian, Mary, and Jamie) lived together in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Over the years, Charlie became increasingly frail, depressed and emotionally vacant. Unable to work, unable to even leave his apartment, Charles Henschke became a shell of a human being.

Books will be available at the event.