“Platinum Branch” and “Thicket” are shot against such dark backgrounds that the lines of the title subjects stretch like windshield cracks or filaments of spider’s web.

B&W magazine writer Dean Brierly noted Marcu’s subject matter “assumes implications quite apart from its physical manifestation.”

An example is “Chair with Flag. The edges are blurred, focusing the eye on the American flag, which has been draped over the chair with the top stripes partly folded over the lower stripes, evocative of a person with legs crossed.

Marcu, who also lived in Hermitage, became interested in photography as a boy.

“Some of my first photographs were of star trails (time exposures), made with a camera my father brought back from WWII,” he said.

“As a kid, I was sort of visually and mechanically inclined and found images and cameras exciting,” said Marcu, 62.

He learned to develop film in his basement, and Bruce Kaiser, who became the graphic arts and photography teacher for Sharon schools, helped him learn to make prints.

Although he was never able to make a living as a photographer – he won’t say how he pays his bills – he has done editorial and commercial work along with his fine art portfolio, and his pictures have been seen in Ohio magazine, the Plain Dealer of Cleveland and The Herald. He also has pieces in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio.

He’s been taking photographs for more than 50 years, but there are plenty more that he wants to snap.

“I have a lot of ideas in mind,” he said.