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Okay, due to popular demand, a few words about myself... Like a lot of other photographers, I, too, first began my love affair with photography as a kid when my Dad gave me an old camera. I bought my cousin's old enlarger and darkroom gear for $50 and set up shop in the attic. I learned to process black and white film and make prints. I really liked taking photos, but nothing I did ever seemed very good. I concluded that I just didn't have much talent. Later, while in college, I started rock and mountain climbing, and bought a camera to take some pictures. I found that I still really liked photography and became more serious about it. I eventually took an introductory photo course at school. |
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It was my good fortune that the photography department at M.I.T. had been started a number of years earlier by the well-known photographer and educator, Minor White. Sadly, by that time he was ill and near the end of his life, and I never had the opportunity to take a course with him. But the excellent faculty he had hired shared his philosophy of photography as an art and how to teach it. In the courses I took, the basics of the camera and darkroom were covered in a couple of sessions. There was a lesson on studio lighting and some time spent working with large format cameras. But the focus (no pun intended) was on the art of photography--how images communicate concepts and emotion, and the importance of finding your own vision. It was fantastic! I found that with lots of effort, practice, and feedback, I was developing an "eye", and was pleased with some of my work. That was the extent of my formal training. On to a career in technology, and on with life. I took lots of photos in my free time, especially during the two years I spent at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. I always preferred color to black and white. I was able to borrow a color-equiped darkroom on a couple of occasions, and made some Cibachrome prints. The Cibachromes were beautiful, but it was so tedious--a whole long evening to make one decent print. And the equipment only handled sizes up to 11" x 14". Fast forward to a few years ago. Digital technology exploded on the scene. My color darkroom now sits on my desktop. My color-calibrated, professional-grade printer produces results far better than those old Cibachromes, in larger sizes, and the prints are truly archival. It's been an unbelievable change. I hope you enjoy my work. I welcome your opinions and comments about any of the images. Mark
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