Between 1801 and 1812, the Earl of Elgin, while serving as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, became passionately interested in Greek antiquities, particularly the marble sculptures and friezes from the Parthenon, which he realized were being plundered and looted at an alarming rate. When he tried to enlist the British Government in buy- ing the antiquities outright they refused. Undaunted, Lord Elgin, a very rich man, began using his own money to buy up as many Greek artifacts as he could, mostly from the Parthenon, shipping them back to London in large crates, where eventually they were donated to the British Museum in 1817, and have been referred to every since (not without controversy) as the Elgin Marbles.

Upon first viewing the Marbles in the summer of 2012, photographer Roger Minick was immediately struck by how modern many of the Marbles seemed, both in execution and style: folds of clothing cling gossamer-like to skin; multiple horsemen gallop side by side, seemingly full-bodied, yet carved on a slab of marble barely six inches thick; nostrils of horses flare during the siege of battle; scenes of human slaughter as graphic as anything seen on the nightly news. Never before had Minick seen the human condition so movingly depicted.

PARTHENON MARBLES is Roger Minick’s photographic response to these profound works of art.