The Mark Alvarez Story

‘I think without art and the arts, what are we really? [...] It’s why a lot of us exist. It’s away from everyday, humdrum life; it’s not about money; it just enriches your soul’

‘I’m incredibly proud to be a small part of the COS community, and to play a really practical role in keeping it running after fifty-two years. It’s an amazing organisation and something everybody on the committee is very, very proud of’

1. How did you come to art?

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I’ve always loved the arts, whether it be music or theatre or painting or photography. Art was one of my favourite subjects at school, but the adults around me didn’t think it was sufficiently academic, so I didn’t take it for A-level. I think I always regretted that: and at the age of fifty I decided to do something about it. I bought myself a camera, and decided that I would try and be the best photographer I could be. 

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At that time, I didn’t ever think that I’d ever exhibit in a gallery, or show my work to anybody other than friends and family. 
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2. What drives you to create?

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There’s a desire to have something to show for your time and your life. Everything I do is really just for me: I’m driven to take the sort of photographs that I want to take. And I enjoy the process, travelling to specific places to capture those images. I like the effort it involves. 

You’re not driven by the possibility that something might end up in a gallery; I’m driven because I enjoy doing it, and because I feel the need to be creative. I spent quite a few years not really doing anything creative and I found life a little too boring.

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3. What inspires you?

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I’ve always loved black and white photography. Starting out, it was people like Ansel Adams: I’ve loved his work since I can remember. Nowadays Michael Kenna is a heavy influence. He uses monochrome all the time, and he’s a real minimalist.

If I see some great work, it drives me to go and create something of my own.

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4. What do you need to make your art?

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My camera, a tripod: I don’t need much else. As a landscape photographer, my studio is the great outdoors. A lot of artists talk about light; I tend to work without much light actually! 

I like travelling – whether it’s to the Highlands or Snowdonia or Venice, where I went last year – but I’m always looking for something a bit different. I’m not a travel photographer. People often want to know where something is, and that isn’t of much interest to me. I’d like people to look at the work and imagine where it is, or what it is. 

I guess I am trying to provoke a response, a different kind of engagement: something more emotional, less literal. So I’m not too fond of labelling where things are.

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5. What is the process by which you make your work?

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Some photographers are out every day, but I have to be in a certain mindset. I like to spend at least a day doing it; often I’ll go away for six or seven days – just on my own with my cameras – and take photographs all day long (or rather, at dawn for quite a few hours)! So it involves a lot of planning.

Although there’s an image in this exhibition called Ghost Trees, which I’m really pleased with, and it’s a spontaneous one. I was on my way to photograph a lighthouse, walking through the mist at dawn, and I saw these ghostly trees. It’s an incredibly rare unplanned shot; a rare bit of spontaneity for me.

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6. How is your art influenced by the space in which you create it?

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For a landscape photographer, it’s all about being outdoors. Really looking at nature: or, in an urban environment, it’s the structures around you, the architecture. Anything that looks a little bit otherworldly.  

You do get quite excited by the conditions: if the clouds look amazing, or particularly if it’s misty, then I will be rushing out the door not wanting to miss any of that!

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7. How do you respond to limitations and constraints?

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Time is always a constraint, but I always make time to be creative.

Sometimes you do just waste a day. Circumstances get in the way – tide times, say, if you’re shooting on the coast – so what you really wanted to capture, the image you had in your mind, doesn’t work. But I’m never upset by that: I tried, and I’ll go back. I go back to some locations quite a few times. 

When I first started practising I learnt a lot by trial and error, particularly with long-exposure photography. I’d come home, review what I’d done, read up about what I might have done wrong: and then I’d just go back the next day and do it again.

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8. What does being in a community like COS mean for you?

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I really enjoy it. Since I’ve joined the committee and met so many fellow artists, photography doesn’t feel like such a solitary practice anymore. I definitely think more about where my practice sits alongside other people’s, and it’s exciting to be exhibiting alongside such a range of work at ArtSpace5-7. 

The first time I ever opened my doors to the public with Open Studios, I thought everybody would criticise what I’d done. It’s definitely a case of impostor syndrome, because I’m not a trained photographer, I’m self-taught. So to get really positive feedback – from the public, and from other photographers – and for them to see elements and shades of meaning that you hadn’t even noticed yourself: that’s quite something.

I’m incredibly proud to be a small part of the COS community, and to play a really practical role in keeping it running after fifty-two years. It’s an amazing organisation and something everybody on the committee is very, very proud of.

9. What is art for? 

I think without art and the arts, what are we really? As far as I’m concerned, we’d be living without a lot of beauty. It’s why a lot of us exist. It’s away from everyday, humdrum life; it’s not about money; it just enriches your soul.

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Based on an interview between Mark Alvarez and Georgia Short on 29 June 2026.

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Mark Alvarez is an FTSQ Gallery represented artist.​​​​

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