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Atlanta-based photographer and educator Mark Schoon will grace the Department of Art October 28-30th.  During his stay he will work with MSU Art Photography majors, participate in critiques, and give a public talk on Thursday, October 29th at 12:30pm in Hunter Henry 1010.

About the Artist:

Mark Schoon is an artist and educator living in Atlanta, GA. His photographs are included in the
permanent collection of The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, the University of North Dakota, and the University of
Alabama, Tuscaloosa among others. He holds a BA in television production from Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale and an MFA in Photography from Ohio University.
Schoon is a Professor of Art at The University of West Georgia.

Statement:

My work explores photography as both a tool of discovery and an instrument of construction.
Through collaborative and independent projects, I investigate how images shape our understanding
of place, memory, history, and the space between reality and imagination. Rather than treating
photography as a neutral document, I am interested in its capacity to persuade, transform, and
create meaning.
Across my projects, I examine how people attempt to understand places that are distant,
inaccessible, or changing. Whether working with scientific imagery, personal archives, or
constructed photographic spaces, I am drawn to the tensions between observation and
interpretation, fact and fiction, and presence and absence. Photography serves as both subject and
method, allowing me to question how images acquire authority and how narratives are formed.
Drawing from the histories of photography, science, contemporary media, and personal experience,
I use photographic processes to examine the assumptions embedded within images. By
acknowledging photography’s constructed nature, I encourage a closer consideration of how
meaning is produced and how images influence our understanding of ourselves and the world.
Ultimately, my work is driven by curiosity and a desire to reconsider what images reveal, conceal,
and make possible. Through this process, I hope to invite reflection on perception, memory, and
the complex relationship between reality and representation.