Mark Power

Power was born in Harpenden, England, in 1959.{{cite web|first1=Mark|last1=Power|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Photographer Mark Power's best shot|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jun/09/photographer-mark-power-best-shot|date=9 June 2010|website=The Guardian}} He studied Fine Art at Brighton Polytechnic (1978–1981), and then travelled extensively, discovering a love for photography along the way. Upon his return, he worked as a freelance for several UK publications and charities.

Power happened to be in Berlin on 9 November 1989 and photographed the fall of the Berlin Wall.{{cite news|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Berlin Wall: the fall – in pictures|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/oct/10/berlin-wall-the-fall-in-pictures|newspaper=The Guardian|date=10 October 2014|issn=0261-3077|via=www.theguardian.com}}{{cite web|first1=Fiona|last1=Macdonald|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall – by mistake|url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20171110-witnessing-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-by-mistake}}{{cite news|access-date=2018-07-10|title=The Wall Comes Down and Nothing and Everything Happens at Once in Mark Power's 'Die Mauer Ist Weg!'|url=https://www.americansuburbx.com/2015/03/mark-power-die-mauer.html|newspaper=American Suburb X|date=2 March 2015}} He later published the photographs in the book Die Mauer ist Weg! (2014).

Between 1992 and 1996, he embarked on The Shipping Forecast — a project that involved travelling to and photographing all 31 areas covered by the Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4.{{cite news|first1=Kevin|last1=Young|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Shipping Forecast's 'baffling' legacy|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6940597.stm|date=27 September 2007|via=news.bbc.co.uk}} This project was published as a book and was a touring exhibition across the UK and France. He used a Volkswagen campervan as his mode of transport for the project, echoing the late Tony Ray-Jones, whose work has similarities in style and meaning to Power's.

Between 1997 and 2000, Power was commissioned to document the Millennium Dome in London, a project that resulted in another touring exhibition and the accompanying book, Superstructure.British Arts Council [http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-art-photography-and-video-mark-power.htm Mark Power: The Millennium Dome] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108235212/http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-art-photography-and-video-mark-power.htm |date=2009-01-08 }} Around this time his technical methods changed and he began to use colour film and a large format camera. This was followed by The Treasury Project, published in 2002, which recorded the renovation of the UK government's treasury building on Whitehall, London.

In 2003, he undertook another personal project, using the London A–Z map as inspiration. The work, titled 26 Different Endings, is a collection of images examining the areas on the outer boundaries of the map. The project was exhibited at the Centre of Visual Art at the University of Brighton,University of Brighton News archive - [http://www.bton.ac.uk/news/2005/051107markpower.php?PageId=825 Between something and nothing - inaugural lecture by award winning photographer Mark Power] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060924034244/http://www.bton.ac.uk/news/2005/051107markpower.php?PageId=825 |date=2006-09-24}} November 7, 2005 and was published as a book in 2007.

Between 1988 and 2002 Power was a member of Network Photographers.{{cite web|url = http://www.markpower.co.uk/CV |access-date = 2011-12-19 | title = Mark Power - Curriculum Vitae}} In 2002 he became a nominee of Magnum Photos, an associate in 2005 and a full member in 2007.Magnum Photos [http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R13LVAE&nm=Mark%20Power Mark Power]

Between 1992 and 2004 he was Senior Lecturer in Photography at the University of Brighton, becoming Professor of Photography in 2004, until the present.

From 2004, he spent five years working on The Sound of Two Songs, on Poland's first five years as a member of the European Union.{{cite web|first1=Sean|last1=O'Hagan|author-link=Sean O'Hagan (journalist)|access-date=2018-07-10|title=The Sound of Two Songs by Mark Power|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/aug/08/sound-two-songs-mark-power|date=7 August 2010|website=The Guardian}}{{cite news|access-date=2018-07-10|title='If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough': how Magnum photographers follow Robert Capa's famous advice|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/pictures-arent-good-enough-arent-close-enough-magnum-photographers/lake-close-city-krakow2009-mark-power/|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}

Between 2006 and 2010 Power collaborated with poet Daniel Cockrill to document the rise in English nationalism. The pair undertook a series of road trips around England, culminating in the book Destroying the Laboratory for the Sake of the Experiment.{{cite news|access-date=2018-07-10|title=The poet and the photographer who discovered Brexit Britain in 2006|url=http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/photographer-documented-brexit-britain-decade-ago/|newspaper=Huck|date=11 August 2016}}

In 2011 he undertook a commission from Multistory to make work that explored the social landscape of the Black Country through photography and film. He made urban landscapes; a series of photographs of elegant footwear; and a series of short films made in beauty salons, tattoo parlours and nightclubs.{{cite web|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Black Country Stories|url=http://multistory.org.uk/project/mark-power/|website=multistory.org.uk|date=23 July 2012 }}"[http://img.multistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/RPS_Journal.pdf Things That Go Unnoticed]". Royal Photographic Society Journal, July/August 2012

In 2014 Power began a self-publishing imprint, Globtik Books, with the publication of his book Die Mauer ist Weg!."[http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/study/pmis/news/new-book-on-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall New photography book on the fall of the Berlin Wall ]", University of Brighton. Accessed 16 December 2014.

Power primarily uses a digital medium format view camera, after he worked with large format film for many years.{{cite web|access-date=2019-04-10|title=My Panoramas Explained|url=https://www.markpower.co.uk/blog/Panoramic-Format|website=markpower.co.uk}} More recently he diversified into short film making.

• Westminster Children's Hospital. Photographers Gallery catalogue, 1988.
• The Shipping Forecast. Zelda Cheatle Press/Network, 1996. {{ISBN|1-899823-02-6}}.
• Superstructure. Harper Collins Illustrated, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-002-20205-3}}.
• The Treasury Project. Brighton: Photoworks, 2002. {{ISBN|978-1-903-79605-4}}. Edition of 1500 copies, of which only 500 were made available for public sale.
• 26 Different Endings. Brighton: Photoworks, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-903-79621-4}}. Edition of 1000 copies.
• Signes. Gulbenkian Foundation exhibition catalogue, 2008. {{ISBN|978-9-728-46246-8}}.
• The Sound of Two Songs. Brighton: Photoworks, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-903-79639-9}}. Edition of 2000 copies.
• MASS. Gost, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-957-42721-1}}. Edition of 750 copies.
• Swap Shop - Postcards from America IV: Florida. London: Magnet Publishing, 2013.
• Die Mauer ist Weg!. Brighton and Hove: self-published / Globtik Books, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-9930830-0-6}}. Edition of 1000 copies.
• Icebreaker. Another Place, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1-9997424-3-0}}. Edition of 600 copies.
• Maintenance. Kyoto, Japan: Seigensha, 2018. {{ISBN|978-4-86152-660-2}}.
• Good Morning, America (Volume I). London: Gost, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-910401-20-0}}.
• Good Morning, America (Volume II). London: Gost, 2019. {{ISBN|978-1-910401-32-3}}.
• Good Morning, America (Volume II). London: Gost, 2020. {{ISBN|978-1-910401-49-1}}.
• Terre à l'Amende. London: Gost, 2021. {{ISBN|978-1-910401-65-1}}.

• Buren, document Nederland, drie buitenlandse fotografen kijken naar Nederland = Neighbours: The Netherlands as seen by three foreign photographers. Amsterdam: De Verbeelding, 2000. With {{Illm|qid=Q1379295|Eva Leitolf}} and Stephan Vanfleteren; text by {{Illm|qid=Q23008855|Tracy Metz}}. {{ISBN|90-74159-30-3}}.
• Destroying the Laboratory for the Sake of the Experiment. Brighton and Hove: self-published / Globtik Books, 2016. Photographs by Power, poetry by Daniel Cockrill. {{ISBN|978-0-9930830-1-3}}. Edition of 1500 copies.

• Positive Lives: Responses to HIV. London: Network Photographers; Cassell, 1993. {{ISBN|0-304-32846-4}}. Part of the Cassell AIDS Awareness Series. Edited by Stephen Mayes and Lyndall Stein. Power contributes photographs for a chapter, "Grief and Loss". With a foreword by Edmund White and an introduction by Stephen Mayes. Each chapter also includes a written essay.
• Home. Tokyo: Magnum Photos Tokyo, 2018. {{ISBN|978-4-9909806-0-3}}.

• 2000: Second prize, Arts and Entertainment stories category, World Press Photo 1999, Amsterdam{{cite news|access-date=2018-07-10|title=1999 Mark Power AES2-BK|url=https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/1999/arts-and-entertainment/mark-power/02|newspaper=World Press Photo}}
• 2003: Terence Donovan Award, Royal Photographic Society, Bath{{cite web|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Terence Donovan Award - RPS|url=http://www.rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/archive/terence-donovan-award|website=Royal Photographic Society}}
• 2017: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath{{cite web|access-date=2018-07-10|title=Honorary Fellowships - RPS|url=http://rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/honorary-fellowships|website=Royal Photographic Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414144540/http://www.rps.org/about/awards/history-and-recipients/honorary-fellowships|archive-date=2019-04-14|url-status=dead}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.markpower.co.uk Mark Power's website]
• [http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.Biography_VPage&AID=2K7O3R13L0NE Mark Power at Magnum Photos]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20111205204209/http://artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk/research/academic/hardie Biography from the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts and Architecture]

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Category:1959 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Harpenden

Category:British architectural photographers

Category:Photographers from Hertfordshire

Category:Magnum photographers

Category:Photography academics

Category:Alumni of the University of Brighton