Twelve photographers
MARK POWER
Born 1959, Harpenden, UK. Lives and works in Brighton.
After studying art at the University of Brighton, where he specialized in figure and landscape painting, Mark Power traveled extensively and accidentally fell in love with photography. He then worked as a freelance photographer for several British magazines, newspapers, and charities, alongside a number of more personal projects, until he began teaching in 1992. Power then distanced himself from the media and began The Shipping Forecast, a poetic response to the daily maritime weather reports broadcast on BBC radio.
© Mark Power / Magnum Photos
The abstract, esoteric language used in these forecasts inspired him to discover exactly what these far-flung land and seascapes actually looked like, since, until then, they had existed only in his imagination. Four years later, the work was completed; the exhibition was seen at over twenty galleries throughout Europe and the book was reprinted twice. Hailed by critics, it won several prestigious awards: the Yann Geffroy International Documentary Prize, the Mosaique European Photography Award, and the Special Jury Prize of the Oskar Barnack Award.
From 1997 to the year 2000, Mark Power documented the construction of the Millennium Dome in London. This project also became a major traveling exhibition and was compiled in the book Superstructure. It marked a significant shift in his photography, as that is when he began to work in color and in large format. Another construction piece followed, dedicated to the restoration of a nineteenth-century historical monument, the HM Treasury Building, once again in London. The Treasury Project, published in 2002, essentially consists of details and fragments compiled in chronological order: starting with its demolition, the space is progressively restructured, cleaned up, and lit, until the stage is complete.
In the years 2000 and 2001, Power worked on several public commissions abroad. Projects in Japan, Holland, and Portugal all became touring exhibitions with accompanying catalogs. This was followed by a personal project deeply rooted back in England, using as its inspiration the London A-Z, the most popular street atlas in the UK. This work, titled A System of Edges, looks at those landscapes unlucky enough to fall just off the edge of the map, which in many ways defines the boundaries of the British capital.
Mark Power became a nominee member of Magnum Photos in 2002. He is currently working on a commission from Airbus to document the development of the A380, the largest passenger plane ever built. Alongside his activities as a photographer, he is also Professor of photography at the University of Brighton.
Awards (selection):
1986 Photographers’ Gallery Award.
1995 Yann Geffroy International Documentary Prize.
1996 Mosaique European Photography Award.
1997 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Special Jury Prize.
2001 Terence Donovan Award, Royal Photographic Society.
Exhibitions (selection):
1997–1999 The Shipping Forecast, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, UK; Centre Atlantique de la Photographie, Brest, France.
1998–2002 Dome, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, USA; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina; CGD, Lisbon, Portugal.
2002 The Treasury Project, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London, UK.
2005 A System of Edges, Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts, Brighton, UK.
Publications (selection):
The Shipping Forecast. Zelda Cheatle Press, London, 1996.
Superstructure. Harper Collins Illustrated, London, 1998.
The Treasury Project. Photoworks, London, 2002.
After studying art at the University of Brighton, where he specialized in figure and landscape painting, Mark Power traveled extensively and accidentally fell in love with photography. He then worked as a freelance photographer for several British magazines, newspapers, and charities, alongside a number of more personal projects, until he began teaching in 1992. Power then distanced himself from the media and began The Shipping Forecast, a poetic response to the daily maritime weather reports broadcast on BBC radio.
© Mark Power / Magnum Photos
The abstract, esoteric language used in these forecasts inspired him to discover exactly what these far-flung land and seascapes actually looked like, since, until then, they had existed only in his imagination. Four years later, the work was completed; the exhibition was seen at over twenty galleries throughout Europe and the book was reprinted twice. Hailed by critics, it won several prestigious awards: the Yann Geffroy International Documentary Prize, the Mosaique European Photography Award, and the Special Jury Prize of the Oskar Barnack Award.
From 1997 to the year 2000, Mark Power documented the construction of the Millennium Dome in London. This project also became a major traveling exhibition and was compiled in the book Superstructure. It marked a significant shift in his photography, as that is when he began to work in color and in large format. Another construction piece followed, dedicated to the restoration of a nineteenth-century historical monument, the HM Treasury Building, once again in London. The Treasury Project, published in 2002, essentially consists of details and fragments compiled in chronological order: starting with its demolition, the space is progressively restructured, cleaned up, and lit, until the stage is complete.
In the years 2000 and 2001, Power worked on several public commissions abroad. Projects in Japan, Holland, and Portugal all became touring exhibitions with accompanying catalogs. This was followed by a personal project deeply rooted back in England, using as its inspiration the London A-Z, the most popular street atlas in the UK. This work, titled A System of Edges, looks at those landscapes unlucky enough to fall just off the edge of the map, which in many ways defines the boundaries of the British capital.
Mark Power became a nominee member of Magnum Photos in 2002. He is currently working on a commission from Airbus to document the development of the A380, the largest passenger plane ever built. Alongside his activities as a photographer, he is also Professor of photography at the University of Brighton.
Awards (selection):
1986 Photographers’ Gallery Award.
1995 Yann Geffroy International Documentary Prize.
1996 Mosaique European Photography Award.
1997 Leica Oskar Barnack Award, Special Jury Prize.
2001 Terence Donovan Award, Royal Photographic Society.
Exhibitions (selection):
1997–1999 The Shipping Forecast, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, UK; Centre Atlantique de la Photographie, Brest, France.
1998–2002 Dome, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York, USA; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina; CGD, Lisbon, Portugal.
2002 The Treasury Project, Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London, UK.
2005 A System of Edges, Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts, Brighton, UK.
Publications (selection):
The Shipping Forecast. Zelda Cheatle Press, London, 1996.
Superstructure. Harper Collins Illustrated, London, 1998.
The Treasury Project. Photoworks, London, 2002.