Mark Vessey Artist Biography
Mark Vessey is a British photographic artist whose work is inspired by the idea of creating art from collections of everyday objects. He spends his life searching for that elusive edition of a magazine; that one book that will make his collection complete. He explores every facet of them with an intensity that only a collector can. He is relentless pursuit of organisation, of order.
Suitably enough, his ongoing body of work is called Collections. It takes inspiration from Mark Vessey’s love of vintage magazines like The Face and Playboy, as well as ground breaking contemporary titles like Attitude.
Individually, these publications are a snapshot in time. When put together in physical and photographic form these collections take on new meaning. After all, this is a time when catalogues of books can be held on a Kindle, when ownership of a vast music collection is just a monthly subscription away.
His work as a photographic artist has been featured in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Creative Review amongst other publications. Mark’s homage to Kate Moss, depicting the magazine spines of 20 years of British Vogue covers with Kate Moss on the cover, was chosen by St Pancras Editions as one of a series of limited edition artworks to be exhibited at St Pancras Hotel. His donated work has raised thousands of pounds for both the Stonewall and Albert Kennedy Trust charities. Mark has even collaborated with Brighton based DJ, Norman Cook, aka, Fatboy Slim by capturing his record collection with his distinct photographic style.
Mark was born and bred in East London in 1982. Inspired by Nan Goldin, Ryan McGinley and American pop culture and artists such as Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, Vessey studied photography at Brighton University before returning to his native East End. He used to walk London, immersing himself in the city at night, drawn to areas of the city that were loaded with impact and intrigue. His experiences in the city inspired his first body of work, When I’m Out, which features a dreamlike vision of the bars, clubs and streets of gay culture throughout the world.