Mark Carlson
Photography
Home
About
Portraits
Trees
Nevada
Statues
Hawaii
Photo Singles
Sales
Home
Angel 1
Man On Street
Point Reyes Row
Bob's Tools
Ugolino 2
Hoop
125th Street
Ashley at China Camp 1
Angel 3
Reno Dome
Mountains 1
Lot 1
Restricted Area
Harrah's 3
About
My name is Mark Carlson (above). I am eighteen years old and I live twenty miles north of San Francisco. I will start college in the fall. Tom is my father (right). Tom introduced me to photography and we help each other with equipment when we photograph. I use digital (full-frame, 35mm) or film (medium format, 6 cm by 7 cm) depending on the project.I've taken photographs for six years. I stole my father's camera at age twelve and didn't give it back until he bought me my own. I like the mental quiet. When you photograph a subject it absorbs your full attention. You walk around it, kneel, stand on boxes, or do whatever it takes to find the right angle. You are a witness. You do not think of yourself; "you" are absent. You focus on the task at hand. You are, as athletes say, "in the zone."Email me if you have any questions. Thanks for checking out my site.
Portraits
Man On Street
Ashley at China Camp 1
Ashley at Duomo
Ashley in Venice Alley
Ashley at San Michele 1
Ashley at San Michele 2
Ashley in Pazzi Chapel 1
Ashley in Pazzi Chapel 2
Ashley in Pazzi Chapel 3
Ashley at China Camp 2
Ashley at Crissy Field
Ben 1
Ben 2
Ben 3
Ben 4
Ben 5
Dido 1
Aeneas 1
Dido 2
Aeneas 2
Dido 3
Dido 4
Portraits
These are my portraits. The last sequence features two actors portraying a relationship and subsequent break-up (modeled off Aeneas and Dido).
Trees
Point Reyes Row
Sea Ranch 1
Sea Ranch 2
Sea Ranch 3
Road and Tree
Wisconsin Lone Tree
Trees
I like taking pictures of trees. I have seen few good tree pictures because it is so difficult (and I have only six in this portfolio). The basic structure of the tree works well for photographs, but rubbish on or around the trees and the question of what to do with the background (keep background, put out of focus, overexpose) obstruct the image.
Nevada
Restricted Area
Road 1
Reno Dome
Harrah's 1
Harrah's 2
Harrah's 3
Window 1
Lot 1
Building 1
Lot 2
Fence
Dry Land
Window 2
Clouds 1
Clouds 2
Lincoln Motel
Mountains 1
Mountains 2
Mountains 3
Road 2
Road 3
Clouds 3
Clouds 4
Restricted Modified
Nevada
I went to Nevada with Tom. We stopped first in Reno then drove east on Highway 50, the so-called "Loneliest Highway in the World." These are photos from that trip.
Statues
Angel 1
Angel 2
Angel 3
Ugolino 1
Ugolino 2
Caesar 1
Caesar 2
Caesar 3
Images 4 and 5 depict Ugolino, a damned soul from Dante's Inferno. I wrote the following about the images:Hell (according to Dante) is not a place of cerebral, abstract reason, nor is it one of hope (the gates read abandon all hope). The punishments are physical; we find no lofty theory or theology, but brutal imagery: limbs chopped off, bodies boiling in blood, and heads half-eaten. Damned souls forsook both faith and reason in life, and, as punishment, they can access neither in death; sinners are tempted by worldliness, so they never graduate the physical world.A photographer, then, should be able to capture this world. Hell, according to Dante, is physical extremity: hurricane-force winds (lustful), boiling blood (violent), and frozen lakes (betraying).I photographed a statue of Ugolino. Dante finds Ugolino in the base of Hell the ninth circle with the souls who betrayed. Ugolino betrays his homeland (Pisa) and the people lock him and his sons in a tower and throw the keys into the Arno. His sons, tormented by hunger, offer themselves as food to their father (intended to mirror the sacrifice of Christ), who misses the parallel and refuses to repent. Ugolino watches his sons starve. He eats their dead bodies before starving himself. In Inferno, Dante finds Ugolino frozen neck-deep in ice and eating the head of his partner-in-crime (Ruggieri). Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-75) sculpted the scene (1865-7): Ugolino looks forth with hand on chin, pitying himself, as his starved or starving sons beg at his feet.How should a photographer approach this statue? He should leave no space above the head, for empty space implies a higher station to which the soul may hope or aspire. (Faith is off limits to damned souls. They may aspire to nothing; they are stuck for eternity.) Nor should heads reflect reason or rationality: damned souls at best rejected reason (e.g. lustful and wrathful) and at worst perverted it for evil ends (e.g. fraud). A photographer should marginalize heads or cut them out altogether. A photographer should use light to illuminate the body. Hell is physical and corporal. A photograph should emphasize every muscle and tendon rippling beneath the surface of marble. The detailed marble surface doesn't matter the souls, after all, are mere shades or ghosts with no material substance a photograph must emphasize form.
Statues
I often photograph statues. They can sometimes make better models than people because they stand still.
Hawaii
Flower 1
Flower 2
Haleakala Crater
Haleakala Crater 2
Haleakala Path 1
Haleakala Path 2
Oahu
Kids in Road
Sunrise Restaurant
TV
Shave Ice
Maui Real Estate
National
Apartments 1
Apartments 2
Hawaiian Bibles
North Shore
Hawaii
You usually associate a certain "mood" with Hawaii. These photos, all taken on the Islands, defy that mood.
Photo Singles
Bob's Tools
Hoop
Stone Railing
Focus Flower
Hotel
Fire Chopper
Cargo Ship
125th Street
NYC Stop-Light
NYC Street Lamp
Diddy with Stop Sign
Photo Singles
These photos do not belong in any particular portfolio.
Sales
Sales
All prints are digital. I print color on semi-gloss paper. I print black-and-white on bamboo matte paper or semi-gloss baryta paper. (Baryta is found in traditional film paper, giving the darkroom prints their deep blacks and creamy whites. My digital prints equal or exceed traditional darkroom quality.) Prints come in three sizes: big, small, and miniature. "Big" is bigger than 8.5" x 11" (usually about 13" by 16") and "small" is smaller than 8.5" by 11" (usually about 8" by 10"). Miniature prints are small cards (usually about 4" by 6"). Specific sizes vary from print to print (depending on dimensions). Some images are low-quality and can only be printed in small or miniature size. I mat the prints to fit standard-size frames. Big prints (matted, unframed) are $59 and small prints (matted, unframed) are $29. Miniature prints are $9.Email me if you're interested in buying a print. Thank you for your interest.
Mark Carlson Photography © 2011
markcarlsonphotography_gmail.com
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