Mark Adams (photographer)
Mark Adams (born 1949) is one of New Zealand's most distinguished photographers.
He was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and attended the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts from 1967–1970, majoring in graphic design to get access to photography.
I learned bugger all at art school. Tom Palaskas, a fellow student, taught me how to develop film and print. I taught myself how to use cameras. Then I discovered the art schools 4 x 5-inch Linhof plate camera and taught myself how to use that. That changed everything. That was the future.
After art school Adams became interested in painting through a long-term friendship with the artist Tony Fomison and later Theo Schoon.
Best known for his work on documenting Samoan tatau (tatooing), Maori-Pakeha interactions around Rotorua, and historic sites around New Zealand, Adam's work has been extensively exhibited within New Zealand as well as Europe, Australia and South Africa. His work has also featured in Brazil's São Paulo biennale.
In 1997 Adams was awarded the Southland Art Foundation Artist in Residence award.
His work is represented in most of New Zealand's major art institutions, including the Auckland Art Gallery, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Christchurch Art Gallery.
In 2009, his photographs featured in a new book Tatau: Samoan Tattoo, New Zealand Art, Global Culture published by Te Papa Press, the publication arm of New Zealand's national museum. The book tells the story of Samoan master tattooist, the late Sua Sulu'ape Paulo II.
Adams lived for many years in Auckland, New Zealand where he has also taught photography.
Read more about Mark Adams (photographer): Publications, Interviews
Famous quotes containing the words mark and/or adams:
“I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“It was the feeling of a passenger on an ocean steamer whose mind will not give him rest until he has been in the engine-room and talked with the engineer. She wanted to see with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own hand the massive machinery of society; to measure with her own mind the capacity of the motive power. She was bent upon getting to the heart of the great American mystery of democracy and government.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)