Inside the Lens: Mark Leaver
MARK LEAVER
Story: Candies Deezy Liu
Mark Leaver was always a shutterbug at heart. When his uncle
gave him his first SLR camera when he started a photography
course at school, he began to pursue his passion even more.
“That year, most lunchtimes, I’d be found in the black and
white darkrooms,” Mark recalls. Later that year, he got his
first job working in a photo specialist lab, where he learned to
process and print film to a professional standard, and digital
retouching. He later decided to study commercial photography
at the university level, where he worked on refining the skills he
developed with the help of tutors and peers.
He started with shooting various types of work and although
he still does, Mark has refined his practice when he creates a
particular series. He describes his work as formal portraiture.
“It references Rembrandt style works, and I feel it fits with
typographic work,” he says.
As a fine art photographer who documents marginal subjects
and subcultures, he created a series which he simply named,
“Tattoo,” a self-initiated personal project that one day he hopes
to make into a book. His vision behind this project is to capture
people with facial tattoos in a more intimate and relatable light.
“Tattooing is a marginal subculture, so by only focusing on people
with facial tattooing, I’ve taken this to the extreme,” Mark explains.
The core idea of the project is to redefine a butchered stereotype
and change ill-educated people’s opinions by providing a new
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substantial platform for them in which to create and fulfill a
contemporary mindset. “Facial tattooing, traditionally in western
culture, is associated with negative stereotypes including;
criminality, depression, antisocial behavior, and suicide rates.
This is not the case now,” he says. “However, being a sparsely
represented topic that hasn’t been professionally approached
on such a scale in centuries, people haven’t had a chance
to readjust their opinions on facial tattooing. I approached
this topic with little firsthand knowledge; however, through
meeting, interviewing, and photographing all of these people,
I believe facial tattooing now represents creativity, aesthetics,
transformation, and spirituality,” Mark continues. The series has
gained international media attention and recognition, including
the Daily Mail, a major UK tabloid, as well as HUCK Magazine.
Currently based in Australia, Mark continues to shoot portraits of
people of various genres and walks of life. His discovery of new
techniques and ideas is an ongoing process. In a few months, he
plans to travel to Asia, looking for inspiration for a new substantial
body of work that will be shot over the next few years. While he
also works various seasonal jobs, Mark enjoys his time off each
year to focus on his photography in various places around the
world.
www.mdleaver.com
www.Facebook.com/mdleaverphotography
Himemiya Neko