Oliver Mark

Oliver Mark (born 20 February 1963) is a German photographer and artist known primarily for his portraits of international celebrities.

Life and education

Mark trained as a photographer, working first in the field of fashion photography at Burda Photo Studios in Offenburg. As a guest student, he attended seminars in Visual Culture at the Berlin University of the Arts by Katharina Sieverding, known for her large format photographs.

Mark is the father of two sons and lives in Berlin.

Work

In the 1990s, Mark began photographing celebrities. He became known for his portraits of Anthony Hopkins and Jerry Lewis, but also of other public figures including Angela Merkel, Pope Benedict XVI, and Joachim Gauck, and actors like Ben Kingsley, Cate Blanchett and Tom Hanks. His personal interest lies in contemporary artists and their creative world. He has close contacts with well-established and emerging artists, who he portrays in their working environment.

He works with both a single-lens reflex camera and an old, 680 Polaroid. The instant photos produced by the Polaroid reveal Mark's familiarity and closeness to the subjects he portrays.

He has worked for magazines such as ''Architectural Digest,'' ''Rolling Stone,'' ''Der Spiegel,'' ''Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin,'' ''Stern,'' ''Time,'' '' Vanity Fair,'' ''Vogue'' and ''Die Zeit.''

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* 2002/03: ''Portraits'', Mougins Center of Photography, Mougins
* 2011: ''7 Artists and 1 Nude'', Galerie Gloria, Berlin
* 2011: ''Portraits'', Neuer Pfaffenhofener Kunstverein, Pfaffenhofen a. d. Ilm
* 2012/13: ''Märkische Adlige – eine Bilanz nach 20 Jahren'', , Potsdam
* 2013: ''Heimat verpflichtet'', Kanzlei im Lübbenauer Schlossbezirk, Lübbenau
* 2013: ''Oliver Marks Blick auf Liechtensteins Staatsfeiertag am 15 August 2012'', Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz
* 2014: ''Oliver Mark – still...lesen'', Goethe-Institut Irland, Dublin
* 2014: ''Märkische Adlige – eine Bilanz des Neuanfangs'', Fürst-Pückler-Museum, Cottbus
* 2014: ''Aus den Trümmern kriecht das Leben – Portraits von Karl Otto Götz'', Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
* 2016/17: ''Natura Morta'', Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz
* 2017: ''Natura Morta,'' Natural History Museum Vienna
* 2017: ''Natura Morta, Fotografien von Oliver Mark in Korrespondenz zu Stillleben-Gemälden der Sammlung'', The Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
* 2018: ''Life at the Bukovina Monastery'', Bukovina Museum Suceava, Romania
* 2019: ''Life at the Bukovina Monastery'', Liechtenstein National Museum, Vaduz
* 2019: ''No Show'', Villa Dessauer – Museen der Stadt Bamberg
* 2019/20: ''Golden Shoes'' – Photographs from the Collection of the Liechtenstein National Museum by Oliver Mark
* 2019/20: ''Life at the Bukovina Monastery'', St. Thomas von Aquin Church
* 2020: ''Jenny Holzer's Hands'' in the Peter and Paul Church, Potsdam

Natura Morta

Mark's exhibition ''Natura Morta'', which was presented in two parts at the Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Natural History Museum Vienna in 2017, addresses how humans deal with nature and the environment, in particular the animal world, but also the aesthetics and beauty death. Mark's still life photographs were taken in the Asservat Chamber of the Federal Office for Nature Conservation in Bonn in 2015. His idea was to photograph items seized by customs, such as leopard skulls, ivory carvings, crocodile and turtle products, protected animal and plant parts, etc. He photographed these using specific backgrounds and a method of lighting (Old Master-like daylight, lit only through a crack) to generate in the viewer a desire to observe. In the Vienna Natural History Museum, these items are sorted into three categories and exhibited in context with different animal specimens, to address the topic of species protection. The photographs were presented in historical picture frames. This created a dialog in the Paintings Gallery of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts between the different genres of painting and photography as well as the painted or photographed still lifes.

Publications

* ''Portraits''. Hatje Cantz

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