Mark Smith

Photographer

Light is a big player in my game, as is colour, the two things that I love to tinker with most days, and if it’s not through a lens, then it’s always a watchful eye.

My palette was driven strongly from time spent out on the West Coast, just out from Auckland, the black iron sands after a tide has pulled out, seeing the beautiful blue from the iron sitting on top. The sky and all its changes through a setting sun, looking into waves and seeing the blue and green water change colour as sand from the bottom mixes them into a foamy grey mush. The orange rescue buoy hanging on a hook at the bottom of a volcanic cliff, and Kikuyu grass, when the sun gets behind it, the impossible bright green that is produced is almost impossible.

We live with this colour in a variety of objects in our house, it gets into my palette pretty easily given our great outdoors (Native Bush, being in the sea and paddling through seaweed)

6xColours

Mark Smith has been a practicing commercial photographer in New Zealand for over 30years. He has a strong pull towards personal work, exhibiting regularly. He has always enjoyed photographing people too, enjoying the idea that a photo is an instant archive, kept or lost at the push of a button.