MARK LEE BLACKSHEAR

Born and reared in Brooklyn, New York, beginning 1953, Mark Blackshear credits his artistry in photography to the benevolence of renowned mentors and his constant search for the techniques and the resources that capture the essence of the image or creative expression he desires to achieve.

Exhibitions have included The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY;, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, PA; 40 Acres Art Gallery, Sacramento, CA; Chastain City Gallery in Atlanta, GA; Nordstrom Department stores (14 national locations);, The Leica Gallery, New York, NY; The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY;  ,The Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, and many others.

Publications include all photographs in Danny Simmons' Three Days as the Crow Flies, I Dreamed My People Were Calling But I Couldn't Find My Way Home, The Brown Beatnik Tomes, and a portrait of Abby Lincoln, in Wayne Enstice & Janis Stockhouse's book: Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-one Musicians.  And assorted magazines and newspapers, like The International Review of African American Art, Russell Simmons’ One World , NRG The Pulse of Brooklyn, ArtNews, Vibe, The New York Daily News, The New York Amsterdam News, Minority Businessnews USA, and The Our Time Press, among others .

Mr Blackshear’s images are in private, corporate and educational collections. His artistic philosophy is founded on a desire to capture a fleeting moment, a solitary instant in eternity in a setting or situation in which he's been assimilated, defining for posterity an elusive moment in life.

"As a photographic artist, my creative pursuit is to escape categorization, characterization, and compartmentalization to explain or limit my photographic expressions and proclivities. My pleasure is in how observers emote to my successes.  My quest is to pursue my ambitions as a photographer, unbridled, and always with a constant yearning to be better."