Mark Power

Long Journeys, Patient Eyes

Mark Power was born in 1959 in Harpenden, England. His first encounter with photography came early, through a makeshift enlarger built by his father: a flowerpot, a bulb, and a simple lens balanced together in the attic. The device sparked a curiosity that would unfold slowly, shaped first by drawing and painting, and later by years of travelling through South-East Asia and Australia. During those years he worked as a teacher, actor, mural painter, ship-hand, and camera-shop manager, discovering that the camera offered a language more compelling than the pencil.

Between Documentary and Imagination

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Power had become a distinctive voice in British documentary photography. His long-term projects often operate between fact and imagination, tracing the tension between how places look and how they are remembered, described, or imagined from afar. The Shipping Forecast set the tone: an inquiry into whether the real landscapes aligned with the mental geographies shaped by the BBC’s cryptic maritime bulletins. Later works, 26 Different Endings, Mass, Die Mauer ist Weg! and others, explored themes of belonging, borders, faith, and historical rupture.

Alongside his independent projects, Power spent nearly a decade in editorial and NGO photography before transitioning into academic life. He taught at the University of Brighton for many years, eventually becoming Professor of Photography, nurturing a generation of young British image-makers.

01 | MARK POWER | © MARK POWER

04 | THE FUNERAL OF POPE JOHN PAUL II, POLAND 2005

A Practice of Duration

‍Power’s work is held in major collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council of England, LACMA, Pier 24, and the Marrakech Museum of Photography. He has published several books, each reflecting a commitment to long-form storytelling and to the slow accumulation of meaning. Since 2007 he has been a full member of Magnum Photos, contributing to the agency’s rich documentary tradition while maintaining a distinctly personal voice.

Mark Power lives in Brighton with his family, continuing to pursue projects shaped by attention, duration, and an enduring curiosity about the world and its edges.‍