Photographer

Mark Scott was born in Wales in 1965. His family moved to Somerset when Mark was just four, and then to Devon in his teenage years. Growing up in the beautiful West Country landscape proved inspirational for Mark and he became keenly aware of the world around him. He was given an instamatic camera at the age of eight, followed by an SLR camera some time later, and went through childhood ‘taking lots of pictures.’

Working predominantly in black and white, Mark has perfected his craft by attending courses in photography and printing over the last few years. His style fits broadly into that of “concerned photography’, where he works with the people in his photographs to compel their participation and capture a true representation of the subject.

Chief among Mark’s role models is Sebastiao Salgado, whose epic and deeply moving black and white studies of third world famine and poverty raise life changing questions in the viewer. Mark also admires Cartier Bresson and Dorothy Lang, particularly the latter’s photographs of migrant workers. Mark’s photographs taken at Angkor Wat display a similar humanity. ‘One of my favourite pictures is of a little girl who was there with her dad,” he says. “It was funny because they asked if they could take my picture, so I agreed. Then later I asked if I could take a picture of them, and I really love the resulting photograph. The little girl is so confident and so self-possessed. The key to capturing this is informed consent.”

Mark applies this same respect to his landscape subjects, such as the integrity he affords to abandoned stone buildings in Cambodia, fighting against their environment in the ‘Jungle Temple’ series. We also see this approach in his photographs ‘Waterfall’ taken in Tobago, the London image ‘Autumn Highbury Corner’, and recent ‘Skye’ photographs. These images display a deep understanding and appreciation of the landscapes in view, capturing natural beauty in vivid and unusual light, and sometimes reflecting humour, as with his images ‘Passing Place’ and ‘Sign on Fence’.

Mark’s desire to present all his subjects with truth and dignity was influenced by his childhood. After a trip to South Africa, his mother was left horrified by the struggles there and came home to become an active campaigner against Apartheid. Her work rubbed off on Mark, “It’s much more difficult when someone has been involved in an awkward situation,” he says. “To have that kind of strength to carry on, I think that’s inspiring.”

Mark tries to reflect such concerns through his photography. He believes pictures should be used to tell a story or make a political statement, citing as examples the seminal pictures of burnt running children napalmed in Vietnam, or photographs of children in the Soweto riots. “You can say so much with an image,” he says. “It’s the only way to communicate. These kinds of pictures changed things or informed people what was going on. I think photography should be used to tell stories of what is happening around the world.”

In future, Mark is keen to photograph both human and landscape based subjects. Current projects include a series on water, promising a new collection of stunning images.

To view samples of Mark’s work click on the Gallery. To see his current collection click here.

If you would like to view his work in person, click on Events to find out where his work is showing next. 

To keep updated on the development of Mark’s future projects click here.