Staff Profile
Mark Adams
Photography Course Lead and Senior Lecturer
I am a photographer and academic whose practice and research is concerned with landscape representation as a means of investigating the cultural forces which impact the environment. My large format landscape photographs are made during extended walks, which focus on the disregarded, indeterminate and transitory spaces with a recurring focus on post-industrial legacies. My methodology exploits photography’s empirical and suggestive qualities and the inherent tensions between indexicality and allegory in modes of photographic representation.
Over the past 20 years I have exhibited in the United States, Europe and the UK. I published ‘Peregrinus [Bede’s Walk]’ walk in 2020 a publication, which is part map, part photo book that explores parallels between the flâneur and the ancient notion of the pilgrimage as allegorical journey. My work appears in various journals such as Next Level, Der Greif Magazine and recently in the American landscape publication 'Observations in the Ordinary'.
- School – School of the Arts
- Email – m.adams@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 682
- Postgraduate Research Supervisor
Further information
Teaching
I have 15 years of teaching experience in Higher Education and have taught photography at both undergraduate and graduate levels in England and the United States.
Research
Between 2007 and 2016 I developed a series of projects that explored extended walks, following paths of historical and cultural significance. These projects provided the foundation for a practice-led PhD that investigates the cognitive and intuitive activity of walking as a primary motivation for photographing landscapes. My thesis provides an on-going enquiry into the relationship between the walking, photography and the use of technological navigation tools and maps. This creates a hybrid experience that leads to an embodied experience of place within my practice.
Publications and Conferences
Selected exhibitions
- 2017: GM Art Prize Exhibition, Chamber of Commerce, Manchester.
- 2016: Waterways (Solo), Bradford Industrial Museum, Bradford, West Yorkshire.
- 2016 Northern Light Conference, Landscape & the North, Sheffield Hallam University, Yorkshire.
- 2015: 23:57 COP21: A response to UN Climate Change Conference. Fuse Art Space. Bradford.
- 2015: Third Space: Landscapes & Windows (Solo), PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester.
- 2014: Art in the Eastside, Billboard Installation, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- 2014: Seeing Beckett, Liverpool Irish Festival, John Moores University, Liverpool.
- 2013: Royal Photographic Society, International Print Exhibition, Shire Hall, Stafford.
- 2012: Renaissance Photography Prize Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.
- 2011: Art Moves Festival, Torun, Poland.
- 2011: Kodachrome, Association of Photographers Gallery, London.
- 2006: Artists Responding to Violence Against the Earth, Houston Foto festival : Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston, Texas, USA.
- 2004: Annual Juried Show. Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, Massachusetts, USA.
Selected publications
- 2017 Northern Light Landscape & the North (Conference Publication), Sheffield Hallam University, Yorkshire.
- 2015: Der Greif, Arts Magazine. Issue 8. Germany.
- 2015: Art Monthly (Exhibition Review): April Issue.
- 2014: Paris Lit Up Magazine: Autumn Issue.
- 2014: Index: Cafe Royal Books.
- 2014: London Independent Photography Magazine: Spring Issue.
- 2008: Postcard, Laurence King Publishing.
- 2002: Next Level Photography Magazine: Edition 2 Volume 1.
Curatorial
- 2016: Transition: Prints and Postcards, PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester.
Awards
- 2017: Greater Manchester Art Prize, Finalist.
- 2014: PS Mirabel Open: PS Mirabel, Manchester, Winner.
- 2005: International Photography Awards: Fine Art Category.
- 2001: Chris Garnham Memorial Prize: Royal College of Art, London.
- 2000: Folio Society Illustration Awards: Royal College of Art, London.
