Mark Borthwick

 A Room With A View, 2010
courtesy MMK, Frankfurt am Main. photo: AXEL SCHNEIDER

all images © MARK BORTHWICK

For a number of years, beginning around 1990, British photographer MARK BORTHWICK has been treading the fine line between the worlds of fine art and fashion with a honest and intuitive approach, frequently challenging aesthetic and conventions of fashion photography with humour and a deep personal investment in his work.

BORTHWICK was one of the first young photographers to break the artificial images of prêt-à-porter, haute couture and glossy fashion magazines of the ‘80s. Developing an informal approach to fashion spreads, his pictures explore the possibilities offered by ‘real life’ photography: their approximate compositions, errors in lighting and focus, and often startling chance effects. The result is atmospheric, saturated with color, raw, approachable, personal, and personable.

One can understand why he has participated in numerous award-winning campaigns with design luminaries such as Hussein Chalayan, Comme des Garcons, Maria Cornejo, Martin Margiela, and Yohji Yamamoto. Not in Fashion – his monograph published by Rizzoli in 2009 – cemented his place as a fine art photographer.

For me photography is less about the documentation that it is about a shared experience. Once the experience is shared, then it’s very much the feelings other people get from the image, what the image is trying to say to them – MARK BORTHWICK

And good news: his large-scale work A Room with a View (2010) is currently on view at Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt as part of the exhibition Fotografie Total, on view until January 13, 2013.



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