Mark Dawson with his first camera!
My first camera

Mark Edward Dawson

I am a photographer currently living and making art in Tempe, Arizona. I enjoy creating photos with everything from large-format view cameras that are way older than I am, to smart phones, to state-of-the-art drones.

I love making images and prints using a variety of historical (“alternative”) photographic processes such as platinum-palladium, cyanotype, and wetplate collodion. Despite a fascination with gum bichromate printing I have yet to tear out what’s left of my hair.

I grew up in southern Ohio, but after about age 17 things get complicated geographically speaking. I’ve lived in several US states, as well as Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands. I am currently obsessed with Arizona, Utah, and the American Southwest. My photographs may be of well-known locations, but not the stereotypical (cliché) scenes. I think this helps the viewer feel like they themselves are out there in it, rather than just looking at a photo on the wall.

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 also thought that liquid plant food squirted into my ear would make my brain grow too. Maybe this explains something?

Here’s my resume. (A pdf should open or download to your computer.)

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Photographs
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Countries
States
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Cameras