Mark Bridgwater
- Lives (lived) in New Zealand
I am a 29 year-old perfectionist with an eye for detail.
I started photography in high school, shooting black and white film—processing everything ourselves. The chemical smells and perfect solitude with my creativity is where the passion for photography began. I moved on from highschool and while travelling with my humble finepix point and shoot camera I felt the same pull. I had an aptitude for being artistic and creative with my graphic design, so I soon became re-addicted to searching for the perfect composition amongst some amazing parts of the world.
I found myself drawn to the natural scenes, avoiding man made elements where I could, this is where my appreciation for nature and artistic flair combined. I guess being in New Zealand, its hard to get away from beautiful landscapes, and why would you want to? Being amongst the mountains is where I feel most at home, and where I enjoy shooting the most, where better to do this than the beautiful Southern Alps. The rugged expansiveness and magnificent natural structures—being able to watch that beautiful drawn out moment where the last light hangs onto the very tip of the highest peak or being surrounded by vivid NZ bush. I love being immersed in the wilderness, being able to look all around and having one big composition that is New Zealand.
My first digital SLR was another key to many more photographic opportunities, the door I was most eager to open was long exposure photography and playing with the idea of time. The way a camera can turn a rushing river into silk or a busy city street into an abstract work of art is an awesome thing to play with and I am constantly looking for new things to do with this tool.
Over the last few years, I have progressed from simply capturing amazing places. I now photograph amazing people doing amazing things in amazing places. This has seen the birth of my action sports photography career and is how I see many of the out of the way locations I'm lucky enough to find myself in. This career allows me to combine my love of nature and photography, with my third love—adventure.
I will never stop exploring!
The art works of the artist are dominated by the colors black and gray.