The photographer Mark Blackshear was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1953. He credits his artistry in photography to the benevolence of renowned mentors, and to his own constant search for the resources, intricacies and techniques that capture the essence of the image.
While Blackshear’s work tends toward nature and representational photography, he also uses his talents in both formal and commercial situations. He works, there, to achieve the same essence that he strives for when shooting nature.
Blackshear’s images are in many private collections and corporate and educational institutions. They have also appeared in a number of publications. His photographs appear in several books, including Three Days as the Crow Flies, by Danny Simmons, and in Jazzwomen, Conversations with Twenty-one Musicians, by Wayne Enstice and Janis Stockhouse. Blackshear has also published in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including The International Review of African American Art,Russell Simmons’ One World Magazine,NRG Magazine, ARTnews,Vibe,The New York Daily News, New York Amsterdam News,Minority Business News USA, and Our Time Press.
In addition to this media exposure, Blackshear has exhibited at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA, 40 Acres Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA, Chastain City Gallery in Atlanta, GA, Nordstrom Department stores (14 national locations), Leica Gallery, Manhattan, NY and The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and elsewhere.
Blackshear’s artistic philosophy is based on his ability to capture a fleeting moment, a solitary instant in eternity, where he feels almost transparent, like a camouflaged moth in the midst of a lush green forest, defining for posterity through his photography an elusive moment in life, captured to share with others.
"As a photographic artist, my creative pursuit is to escape the attempts to categorize, characterize, compartmentalize, explain, or limit my photographic expression. It is always pleasing to see how observers respond with delight to the ultimate visualizations of my quest. My fondest wish is to pursue my life as a photographer, unbridled and always with a resolve to improve and be the best I can, with a constant yearning to be better."
The photographer Mark Blackshear was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1953. He credits his artistry in photography to the benevolence of renowned mentors, and to his own constant search for the resources, intricacies and techniques that capture the essence of the image.