Mark Edward Dawson crawls up through a narrow crack in the walls of Fifty Mile Canyon in southern Utah.
Photograph courtesy of Shane Knight

I have been interested in photography as long as I can remember. When I was little I had a theory that photographs were already inside the little film canisters, and when you sent them off to be developed all the store did was take them out, unfold them, and iron out the creases. (I’ve learned a little bit more about photography since then.)

Photographer, educator, traveler

Recent journal entries

Rafael Fire, Arizona, 2021

The Evolution of Fire Management and the Role of Knowledge Back in late 2022 I worked with my friend John Schaffer on another one of his land and wildfire video projects, this time on 2021’s...

Midnight Fire, El Rito, NM, 2022

November, 2022, found John Schaffer and I working on one of his land and wildfire management videos, this time in the tiny funky town of El Rito, New Mexico, site of the Midnight Fire earlier...

Art class with 8th graders

I had an awesome morning earlier this week demonstrating 19th century tintypes to a group of very cool 8th graders in Rachel Giterman’s art class at the James W. Rice Elementary School in Phoenix. We...

New Adventure: Art Fairs!

In yet another fork in the road in Mark’s long list of “careers”, I’ve decided to give Art Fairs a serious go. Several things kinda clicked into place so that it made sense for me...

The Bush Fire Saguaro

Late last year I worked as the drone videographer on a documentary film project about wildfire in the Sonoran Desert. I shared some of my footage with a friend of mine who spotted this one...

Land and Fire – Drone Reel

Over the past year I have had the opportunity to work on a series of short documentary films about land management as it relates to wildfire in the American southwest. I’ve linked to the end...