Picturing Place: Workshop with Mark Power in London Mark Power

Biography

Mark Power’s complex, meticulously crafted images usually made with a large-format camera have earned him a reputation as one of the forerunners of British photography. Known for his seminal work exploring the far-flung locations esoterically described in the BBC’s iconic Shipping Forecast, Power has adeptly expressed the peculiarities of social culture in places as varied as Britain, Poland and America.

His latest project, Good Morning America (which began in 2012 and is ongoing), reflects the current state of the nation while at the same time responding to memories of the cultural imperialism which crossed the Atlantic during his childhood in the British suburbs, in the form of music, film and, in particular, television. “I keep a physical and metaphorical distance between myself and the subject,” Power has said of his process, “yet I remain deeply connected. One might call it an intimate distance.” Another significant project where he again took on the role of a foreign observer, was The Sound of Two Songs (2004-2009), a five-year investigation into the impact of European Union membership on Poland.

Notable commercial collaborations include a commission by Airbus (2003-2006) to document the construction of the largest passenger plane ever built, the Airbus A380. The clarity and visual adeptness of the project resulted in three shows at the photography festival Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse. He has also documented the construction of  the Millenium Dome, The Treasury, Kings Cross station and more recently the new distillery of The Macallan.

For many years his work has been seen in numerous galleries and museums across the world and is in several important collections, both public and private, including the Arts Council of England, the British Council, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Marrakech Museum of Photography and Visual Art.

Power lives in Brighton, on the south coast of England. He was a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Photography at the University of Brighton from 1992 until 2017. Power joined Magnum Photos as a Nominee in 2002, and became a full Member in 2007.

Matt Martin is a Photographer, artist book maker and curator based in London. In 2010 Matt founded The Photocopy Club, An open submission project bringing together photographers through the process of zine making and photocopy exhibitions. The project, now in its 11th year has exhibited throughout Europe, the US, China and South Africa, as well as Photography festivals across the UK.

Matt worked as the curator of Doomed Gallery (Alongside founder, Ken Flaherty) from 2015 to 2018 supporting up and coming photographers to break into the industry with affordable exhibition spaces.

Since 2019 Matt has been the curator and small press publisher at Photo Book Cafe, supporting self publishing within photography. Photo Book Cafe (Started by Rapid Eye's Lee Williams) works with industry professionals, students and up and coming photographers giving them a platform to showcase new publications, through self publishing as well as working with established publishers.

Over the past 15 years Matt has published over 100 zines and artist books and now as well as publishing his own work, teaches photographers on ways to take their projects off the screen and into print, with easy, accessible and interesting concepts, around artists book dummies and small press publications.

ZONE6 is a London based publishing house focused on the printing and production of narrative driven documentary photography. It has an underlying interest in memory, the passing of time and how images have become intertwined with our concept of the past. All output is curated and edited by Johnny McMullan who is a photographer, designer and book maker. Having worked in commercial galleries (Michael Hoppen Gallery / Purdy Hicks Gallery) Johnny now works as a researcher and digital archivist, in the book/box making studio of Piotr Jarosz as well as as a freelance designer.

It was a curiosity in the physicality of photographs and their life as objects that led Johnny to found ZONE6: it started with the production of small-scale zines, made in his bedroom and distributed locally via bicycle, and has since expanded to the production of longer and more considered books. With each release there is the intention that the book should be considered an art object as well as a historical document.

In the past 3 years ZONE6 has released 18 publications. More recent releases are stocked in shops and galleries across the UK as well as in Europe and America.