Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that Mark Lennon has been selected as one of the four artists of the gallery’s recent 11th “Solo Art Series” Art Competition. Mark will now have a month-long solo art exhibition and he will be featured on the gallery’s front page, in the Gallery’s YouTube Channel, as well as in the “Solo Art Series” archive.
Mark is a New Hampshire based photographer and environmentalist. His photography cannot be separated from this passion. He is a photographer of the natural environment. Mark will now be promoted by the gallery with an extensive public relations campaign.
This solo exhibition will distribute, promote and circulate press releases to over 550+ major News Outlets, Premium FOX, CBS, NBC, Affiliated Sites, Guaranteed inclusion on Google News & Bing News and social media distribution through LST gallery’s broad social media network.
In addition, as part of his award package, Mark will now be featured as a Light Space & Time – Artwork Archive promoted artist.
Mark’s art will also be featured on the gallery’s YouTube Channel and with an event postcard.
The “Solo Art Series” is a series of monthly solo art exhibitions for established artists who have a body of work to present to the public. Artist participants were asked to submit the following 3 components for the “Solo Art Series” competition: 1. Their art. 2. Their artist biography. 3. Their artist statement. These elements were evaluated and judged, which resulted in the selection of the artists who will be featured in individual month-long solo art exhibitions. This was the 11th “Solo Art Series” Art Competition that the gallery has conducted.
Below is Mark’s Artist Biography, his Artist Statement, along with 25 of his photographs.
Artist Biography:
Mark Lennon cut school when he was 13 years old to attend the first Earth Day. About the same time he made his first real purchase, a Mamiya-Sekor 500-DTL SLR. That’s all one really needs to know to understand Mark and his photography.
Mark is an environmentalist, first and foremost. He founded and manages a company that keeps usable furniture out of U.S. landfills by directing it to charities. He has been a consultant to the U.S. EPA and the head of recycling for the State of New Hampshire. He is currently restoring a 220 year-old barn on 30 acres of woods and fields that he has protected permanently from development.
Mark’s photography cannot be separated from this passion. He is a photographer of the natural environment. Describing his work, he says, “As a culture, we are losing contact with the natural world. It is all around us, but most of us don’t see it. It has faded into the background. I don’t really care if my photographs are beautiful. I do hope they are arresting, in the sense that viewers will pause and say ‘Wow, that’s out there?’ And perhaps, after that, they will be a little more open to seeing and appreciating the crazy marvels in the natural world that are all around us, every day.”
Most of Mark’s photographs are taken from the forests, hills, ponds, and streams within a few miles of his home. He says, “My ideal is to slow down, let go, turn off the concerns of the day-to-day world, and let my eyes open to see the images that are always available, but normally unseen. On a good day I get into a space where the time and place and light come together with my own mood and make those images manifest. On a really good day good day I am fortunate to capture some small, small fraction of those images and take them home.”
Mark believes that a camera is exceptionally suited to his desire to capture images from the natural environment. For one thing, the photographically captured images are unmediated by any human hand. For another, the camera allows him to frame precisely the image that he finds of most interest. And of all artistic media only the camera is able to capture the fourth dimension of our world, that of time. Only a camera can freeze the motion of a breaking wave or an insect in flight. And only a camera can capture the flow of water or the rippling of foliage through a long interval.
Many of Mark’s images are about no more than light, shape, pattern, and color. He takes few pictures of objects like trees, or mountains, or animals, or church steeples. Many of his images are of events or circumstances that are ephemeral, or that don't really exist at all, like the pattern of light on water, shadows on snow, the curl of a wave. He is drawn to these because they are nothing more than light, pattern and color captured in a fragment of time. He says, “It’s a challenge to hunt for them, good fortune to find them, and great luck to capture them, because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever - you cannot come back and try again.”
Although he shoots in digital, Mark is a pure photographer. He does not use Photoshop or anything like it, which he considers inconsistent with his own interests in making photographs. He uses editing software only to enhance or dampen color, to tweak light and dark tones, to highlight what it was he saw that made him seek to capture the image in the first place.
The images presented here come from a single location – Grafton Pond in central New Hampshire. All were taken in late summer and early fall, when cool air draws clouds of vapor from the summer-warm water. All were taken in early morning, as the sun was starting to make its presence known through the rising mists. “It’s a special time,” says Lennon, “when the world is quiet and mysterious and the day has a million possibilities. Then the sun burns through, the mist burns off, and it’s just another day. But in that time there are magical images in the looming dark of the shoreline and the gray calm of the mist and the brilliant light of the sun pushing its way through.”
Mark has had recent solo exhibitions at the AVA Gallery (Lebanon, NH) and the Markeim Arts Center (Haddonfield, NJ), and his photographs have been selected for numerous juried exhibitions in New England. “In the end,” he says, “my photographs always come back to the images. I take great pleasure in discovering images that I find arresting, beautiful, striking, evocative, out in the natural world, and capturing them, and bringing them home to be enjoyed and shared. And, hopefully, to have something to say.”
Artist Statement:
Incredible, weird, crazy, beautiful images are all around us – so much amazing art. What I love is to get out into the woods and fields and lakes and mountains and get into a space where my eyes open to see all the great art that is there for the seeing. And on a good day, to capture some small part of it and make it accessible in a way I can take home. That can be done with photographs, and with no other art form.
I have always loved the idea of a camera and a photograph. They're a huge challenge because we move in a world of three dimensions plus time. A photograph squeezes them into two. Losing two dimensions, you're creating an image of something that doesn't really exist. At the same time, our own eyes are limited in interpreting that fourth dimension of time. We can neither hold an image of things that are moving very fast, nor stretch that fourth dimension to capture the pattern and flow of things that are moving through time. A camera can do both. What a great tool for making art.
Many of my images are about shape and pattern and color and light. Many are about events that are ephemeral, or that don't really exist at all, like the pattern of light on the surface of water, shadows on the snow, the curl of a wave. I think I gravitate to these because they are nothing more than shape, pattern and color captured in a moment of time. It’s a challenge to capture them, and satisfying when I do, because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
Finally, and not least, I am an environmentalist. As a culture, we are losing contact with the natural world. It is all around us, but most of us don’t see it. It has faded into the background. I don’t really care if my images are beautiful. I do hope they are arresting, in the sense that they will get viewers to stop and say “Wow, that’s OUT there?” And perhaps, when they walk away, to be a little more open to seeing and discovering themselves the mystery and wonder in the natural world that is all around us, every day, every second.
I am not, however, a technician. I do not spend hours editing. I do not use Photoshop or anything like it - they're unconnected to my interest in photography. I use simple editing software to tweak light and dark tones, to highlight whatever it was I saw that made me want to capture the image in the first place.
In the end, my photographs always come back to the images. I simply love to discover images that I find arresting, beautiful, interesting, striking, evocative, out in the natural world, and take their picture, and bring them home to be shared and enjoyed. And hopefully to have something to say.
Mark’s website is: www.marklennonimages.com
