Bio

There is one photograph that, for Mark Simon, encapsulates the wondrous beauty and artistic potential of the fine art black and white photography: W. Eugene Smith’s landmark image, The Walk to Paradise Garden.

“That photograph had everything, from the composition, to the yin and yang of the girl and boy, to the backlighting,” recalls Simon. “It was enchanting to me, and I felt as though I had been there with Smith. As consequence, I’m always looking for that path, that foliage and that overhead light coming from the opposite direction.”

Eugene W. Smith

For this 53 year-old South Carolina/Georgia resident art photography is very much like that Smith image – a creative journey of discovery directed toward the light in search of new avenues of photographic expression.

Where most photographers value the clear delineation of light, texture and form produced by camera and lens, Simon pursues the blending of light and form, focus and texture into a seamless, aesthetic whole. He studiously avoids bright light, preferring to experiment with long exposures.

“I’m drawn to a soft, diffused look, and favor movement, whether by camera, the subject or

the lens,” says the artist. “I like to just shoot, experiment and figure out what causes things to happen. I like to take an image apart, so to speak, when I’m out shooting.”

Experimentation is indeed the hallmark off

Simon’s broadly creative oeuvre. For one set of studio nudes, Simon back-lit his backdrop paper, then, at different times, placed his model both in front and behind the paper, manipulation focus and exposure time to create eerie silhouette and shadow effects.

In another experiment, derived from a

commercial assignment to photograph the Atlanta skyline with a superimposed image of

Haley’s comet, Simon captured a ghostly image of a colleague standing on the roof of a high-rise overlooking the city. He created the effect using a three-minute exposure during which he wracked the focus and shook the camera while his subject stood briefly in front of it, illuminating by a cigarette lighter.

A one-time ballroom dance instructor, Simon first began interested in photography while working as a job-shop printer. He learned about darkroom work while processing litho film for clients. Through contacts in the printing business, Simon began photographing professionally, taking on advertising and editorial assignments. He currently works as an interior decorator in Charleston, hired by designers to apply paint and plaster finishes and patinas to completed projects. He has begun incorporating photographic elements into his design work. “I’ve been experimenting with the design potential of putting images of Charleston on liquid emulsion and apply it to paneling and wainscoting,” he explains.

Simon’s unique range of work has been exhibited in Augusta, Atlanta, Charleston and New Orleans. He has been published twice in Photographer’s Forum magazine as part of its annual Best of Photography issue. Simon also has been published in the April ’05 edition of the B & W Magazine, an international magazine for collectors of fine photography and hopes to self-publish his first book entitled 96 nudes upcoming this year.

Portions from interview with B & W writer Richard Pitnick