Mark Power

Mark Power (born 1959) is an English photographer, born in Harpenden, England. He is a member of Magnum Photos and Professor of Photography in The Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the University of Brighton.

Life and work

Power 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 primarily shoots his work on large format film, but has more recently diversified into short film making.

Between 1992 and 1996, Power 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. 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, he was commissioned to document the Millennium Dome in London, a project that resulted in another touring exhibition and the accompanying book, Superstructure. Around this time his technical methods changed and he began to use color 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, Power 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, and was published as a book in 2007.

Between 1988 and 2002 Power was a member of Network Photographers. In 2002 he became a nominee of Magnum Photos, an associate in 2005 and a full member in 2007.

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

In 2014 Power began a self-publishing imprint, Globtik Books, with the publication of his book Die Mauer ist Weg!.

Publications

Publications by Power

• Westminster Childrens 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, 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.
• 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.
• MASS. Gost, 2013. ISBN 978-0-957-42721-1. Edition of 750.
• Swap Shop - Postcards from America IV: Florida. London: Magnet Publishing, 2013.
• Die Mauer ist Weg!. Brighton: Self-published / Globtik Books, 2014. ISBN 978-0-9930830-0-6. Edition of 1000.

Publications with contributions by Power

• 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". Also includes photographic essays from Denis Doran, John Sturrock, Michael Abrahams, Mike Goldwater, Judah Passow, Jenny Matthews, Paul Reas, Barry Lewis and Christopher Pillitz, Steve Pyke, Paul Lowe and Gideon Mendel. Foreword by Edmund White. Introduction by Stephen Mayes. Each chapter also includes a written essay.

External links

• Mark Power's website
• Mark Power at Magnum Photos
• Biography from the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts and Architecture