American Dreams

Photographer

Mark Forbes

American Dreams

02 Feb, 2022

This image is part of my American Dreams project. This project commenced in March 2020 during a short visit to the USA and is ongoing. I have always been fascinated by America, and how the different states and geographies have such varied aspects and cultures. Each state, and even cities within the state, have their own energy, traits, customs, stories and problems. The series seeks to depict the current state of the USA as it struggles to deal with cultural and economic change, especially in recent years given increased global competition and the downturn of once powerhouse industries. These images form part of the larger series. These images were each photographed using traditional film photography, which is an important part of the process of making the images for many reasons. One of which is that I am able to be more present and focussed as I am going about the work of photographing the scenes I find.

About the photographer

Mark Forbes

"One of my favourite memories as a child was being in airports and on planes travelling from place to place. It was like we were always going somewhere new and mysterious."Mark Forbes is best known for his contemplative and atmospheric documentary photography of street scenes, urban landscapes and structures. He employs film as his medium of choice for personal documentary work - using predominantly traditional medium format cameras.Forbes' approach to photography comes from an underlying fascination with people and their interaction with the environment. He has an uncanny knack of capturing the layers of beauty that exist everywhere around us. "I am an avid people watcher. When I'm out in the street, or even just day to day, I'm constantly seeing beautiful and interesting images and stories in my head.â€Drawn to a documentary style of photography, he visited Fukushima in 2016 to photograph the rehabilitation of the area and assist in telling the stories of people devastated by the unprecedented events of 2011. Forbes' photographs have been exhibited throughout Australia at both commercial and public galleries, including the Monash Gallery of Art, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Perth Centre for Photography, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, Caloundra Regional Gallery, Montsalvat, Tweed Regional Gallery, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Manly Art Gallery, Bayside Gallery, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Victorian Archive Gallery and the Stanley Street Gallery.He was the winner of The Gomma Grant 2019 (best colour photograph), the winner of the OptiKA Photographic Award 2020, the runner up in the 2021 Head On Portrait Award and has been a finalist in many renowned Art Prizes including the Blake Prize, Olive Cotton Award, Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art, CLIP Award, the Lake Art Prize, Footscray Art Prize, Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, Photo Lucida Critical Mass and the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (semi finalist). His portraiture also recently featured multiple times in the British Journal of Photography's 2021 Portrait of Humanity.Forbes is a contributor for The New York Times. While commercially his photographic style has led to shooting for many brands including Jaguar, Mercedes Benz and Samsung. He is available for assignments & commissions, and his limited edition prints are held in public and private collections, in Australia and internationally."I love the ability that photography gives me to tell a story. Especially when that story has a connection to the world that we live in."