Carl Martin was born in Athens, Alabama in 1958. Through the 1980's he lived in New York where he studied photography at the School of Visual Arts. In 1990 he relocated to Athens, Georgia. His photographs acknowledge and elevate existing culture using the intersection of subtle human gesture and a built social environment. The range of his work reflects his childhood in Alabama, formative years in New York, and family life in Georgia. In 1996 Carl won a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1992 and 1995 he was awarded grants from the Georgia Council for the Arts. His work has been exhibited in California, Florida, Georgia and New York. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, The Do Good Fund, the Hartsville-Jackson International Airport and numerous private collections. In 2016 and 2017 his photographs were exhibited in two separate exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. In 2018, his work was presented in an exhibition "New Southern Photography" curated by Richard McCabe at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. In 2012-13 Fall Line Press published four limited edition issues of Carl's work in their Free Fall series. In 2018 Fall Line Press published an eponymous titled book, Carl Martin, featuring a major body of his work from the 1990's. The Ogden Museum of Art published a catalog in book form of the show " New Southern Photography", of the 25 artist included. In 2022, The Georgia Museum of art produce a traveling show and book of work from The Do Good Fund and called "Reckonings and Reconstructions" curated by Jeffery Richmond-Moll. During 2025, Fall Line Press published Carl's second book, "Opportunities In Space", of architecturally based work.