Working on projects is stimulating, and has been paramount in my development as a photographer.
Understanding an artist’s journey offers a deeper appreciation of their work, the influences, decisions, and passions that shape their creative path…
For Mark, photography is as much about observation as it is about expression. What began in his teenage years with film cameras has, after a long pause, become a renewed passion in the digital age. Drawn to the immediacy of the street, he seeks out fleeting moments that tell a story or hold an aesthetic resonance, whether through bold colour or the quiet strength of black and white.
In this conversation, he reflects on rediscovering photography after decades away, the role of projects and Royal Photographic Society distinctions in shaping his practice, and how personal loss has brought him to a moment of reflection. His residency presents the harvest of the last seven years, offered both as a celebration of photography and as an invitation for others to find joy in making images of their own.
LSA: How did you first get into photography, and what drew you to it as your main medium?
I started taking photographs as a teenager, about 50 years ago, when I joined my local photographic society. When I left the area to undertake training to become a social worker, for almost the next four decades I only took photographs on holiday.
I rejoined my local photographic society here in Leamington 35 years later, and it’s only for the last seven years that I’ve taken photography more seriously.
LSA: What inspires the subjects you choose to capture?
I re-started my photography journey seven years ago and had to re-learn to take pictures in a digital age. As a teenager I had taken photographs on film and transparencies and digital photography was something brand new to me, and I had to learn how to process images on a computer and to print my own work.
I’m a street photographer at heart, and like trying to capture a moment, to tell a story or to take a picture of something that speaks to me aesthetically, whether it be during the day or at night. I’m drawn by bright colours, but also the contrast in black and white.
LSA: You’ve achieved ARPS recognition with the Royal Photographic Society. What did that journey mean to you as a photographer?
I find that working on projects is stimulating, and the Royal Photographic Society distinctions have been paramount in my development and my learning to become a more competent photographer. I was successful with my licentiate panel in April 2019, and then embarked upon the associate distinction.
I wanted to undertake a project that would resonate with my social justice and anti-discriminatory values. It developed by chance from listening to a programme on Radio 4 about women and allotments. My project was about societal change and that allotments provide a safe space for women that can support their physical and mental health. I wanted to capture the relaxing and calming nature of the allotment.
The project took me three years to complete, gaining my ARPS in 2023.
LSA: What are you hoping to explore or experiment with during your residency at the LSA Art Room? Are there projects you’re excited to pursue beyond the residency?
For me, I’m at a crossroads both personally and in my photography. Earlier this year my wife sadly died, and it marks the end of almost 40 years of my life.
I had started a project towards my fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, but this has faltered for obvious reasons. These two weeks will provide the time for reflection, and help me try to regain the enthusiasm to restart and develop my FRPS project.
My residency photographically is about exhibiting the harvest of the last seven years. I hope that people will enjoy viewing my work and it will provide some inspiration for them to pick up a camera or mobile phone and take some photographs.
The profits from any sales of my work during my residency will go to the British Heart Foundation in memory of my wife, Jo.