Mark Burns | America’s Western Landscape

‘America’s Western Landscape’ is an exhibit celebrating the raw beauty, vistas and natural diversity of the American West. In many ways this exhibition represents the ‘best of the best’ from Burns’ current collection of landscape works. The exhibit will feature 50 artist selected pieces. The work consists of traditional Black and White photographs, color photographs, and some very unique hand-colorized black and white photographs… reminiscent of the vintage look of early hand-tinted photography, common from the late 19th century till the mid 20th century. Burns states, “With the expansive
vistas of the American West I tended to work more with my panorama cameras during this project. It’s a different way of seeing… in the past, I always liked that I could emphasize either the land or sky with a traditional 4×5 format. For this project, however, I found the 6×12 and 6×17 formats very useful in expressing the open feeling of much of the West and Southwest.” In addition to this mix of photographic processes and formats… the exhibit will also explore multiple genres of landscape photography. The exhibition also features an audio guide option for select works via a visitor’s smartphone. 

Biography

American photographer Mark Burns was born in Houston, Texas. Known for having a refined ‘photographers eye’, Burns creates compelling images that are a unique mastery of composition, lighting, and photographic technique. While very much at home in the studio, Burns especially loves the unique challenges and demands of landscape and location photography.

He began working professionally in 1978, primarily as a sports photographer. In the late eighties throughout much of the nineties his professional work shifted almost exclusively to commercial photography. Burns’ work has appeared in numerous publications around the world. They include Time Magazine, The Sporting News, The Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Wine & Spirits Magazine, to name a few, as well as many other regional magazines, corporate publications, and websites.

A master of the black and white image, Burns is skilled in large format photography and traditional silver gelatin and platinum printmaking yet is equally comfortable working in today’s digital world. By combining his traditional photography background and expertise with modern digital equipment and a digital workflow Burns believes that he can best express his creative vision. Whether the subject be landscapes, people, nudes, or a still life… today it is the ‘fine art’ image and the archival print that inspires him most as a visual artist.

In October of 2015 Burns completed a five year project photographing all 59 of America’s national parks in black and white, ‘The National Parks Photography Project’. This iconic work became an exhibit that traveled to six museums during the National Park Service centennial year of 2016. The highly acclaimed exhibition of black and white photographs had a combined venue attendance of approximately 297,000 people.

As he continues to develop as a photographer and artist, Burns strives to keep his images timeless, reflecting a personal vision. Most of the time, this philosophy translates into a photographers personal work. For Burns, it is often evident in his commercial work as well. He say’s “There are snapshots and there are photographs, a good photograph should convey a feeling or mood, evoke a reaction. Profoundly, it is sometimes what’s not so obvious in a photograph that gives it strength.”