Mark Power: A System of Edges closed on 1 May 2006. For details of our current exhibitions, take a look at our what’s on page.
Mark Power’s work focuses on architecture and landscape. A System of Edges explored the dialogue between real and imaginary space, recording the boundaries of London as defined by the London A–Z.
In A System of Edges, Mark Power explores the edges of London as defined by the A–Z atlas, offering a view of the landscape beyond the confines of the map; places just unlucky enough to fall off the edge. On the surface, these photographs appear to be basic records of what was seen, but there is beauty to be found in their seemingly banal encounters with industrial buildings, suburban streets and forgotten landscapes.
© Mark Power / Magnum Photos
Biography
Mark Power began working with photography after studying illustration at Brighton Polytechnic in the 1980s. He then pursued a career as a freelance photographer for several British magazines, newspapers and charities. In 1992, Power made a series of pictures entitled The Shipping Forecast, a visually poetic response to the maritime weather reports broadcast daily on BBC radio.
Many of Power’s other projects have focused on London, for example documenting the construction of the Millennium Dome (1997–2000) and the refurbishment of the HM Treasury in Whitehall (2000–02). They combine interests in art, documentary, landscape, and architectural photography. Power’s photographs are essentially hybrid, and unsettle expectations as to what they record; they play with genres and styles and, in doing so, draw out the details and significance of a particular place.
