D. R. Martin Collection

First Street in downtown Duluth in the 1960s with several men in the foreground and background.
In the 1960s, a man stands on the back of a box truck while holding a broom.
An older man stands on a sidewalk askance and looks into the camera while a well-put-together man walks past in the foreground. In the background, we can see a building around the corner with "Randolph's" painted on the side.
In Florence, an old man sits at the base of a structure and holds a newspaper close to his face, as if having trouble reading. To his side, a flurry of birds flap their wings.
In Edinburgh, an older man and woman are petting a dog in front of two large wooden doors to a church. The woman holds an umbrella. In the background, we see a misty churchyard.

Opening Fall 2026

This exhibition includes 22 photographs made by D. R. Martin between 1968 and 1973 alongside photographs held in the Tweed’s collection by photographers he admired including Berenice Abbott, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Esther Bubley, Elliott Erwitt, Dorothea Lange, W. Eugene Smith, and Garry Winogrand.

Born and raised in Duluth, MN, D. R. Martin’s enduring relationship with photography began when he was a teenager. Martin (1950 – 2025) taught himself how to use a camera, process film, and read negatives. He studied the work of photographers he admired, some of whose photographs are included in this exhibition and found within books in the Reading Lounge. Most importantly, he developed new ways of seeing and learned to trust his instincts. Martin ventured out into the streets of his hometown and other cities with his camera in search of what French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) called “decisive moments.”

From 1968 through 1973, Martin made photographs in Minneapolis and Duluth but also traveled with his camera to Europe and the United Kingdom. His black and white images portray people and place through fleeting, candid interactions—a practice often referred to as street photography. With the eye of a modern flâneur, an observer who wanders the city to find the extraordinary hidden within the ordinary, Martin utilized available light—natural, artificial, and ambient—to frame his subjects. His photographs are sincere, often charming, profoundly poetic, and dispense with the formalities of traditional portraiture.

The Tweed was pleased to acquire the D. R. Martin Collection in 2025 as a gift from D. R. Martin and Sue Wichmann. The collection includes approximately 100 prints, plus contact sheets, thousands of negatives, digital files, and photography books.  

Support for this exhibition was provided in part through gifts by Mary Costello, Priscilla Farnham, Carol Killen, Betsy Turner, Inez and Richard Tousignant, and Charles L. Matsch Exhibition Fund. With thanks to Jim Stukel, UMD student intern, who provided cataloguing assistance to the Collection Department in processing this collection.

Image credits: 
D. R. Martin, First Street, Duluth, 1968, 1968
D. R. Martin, Man with Broom, Duluth, 1968, 1968
D. R. Martin, Rudolph’s Furniture, Duluth, 1968, 1968
D. R. Martin, The Newspaper, Florence, 1972, 1972
D. R. Martin, Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh 1969, 1969