About This Image

Signed and dated on verso. Sealed under water-white den glass with photographer's label, including title, date, artist's serial number, etc.

Mark Kessell is an Australian-born physician who left medical practice to study art in New York.

While studying he became interested in the daguerreotype as a medium for expressing ideas about identity, predominantly because of its uniqueness, and its ability to reflect an image of the viewer while displaying an image of the subject. He makes large-format daguerreotype portraits by commission and continues to use this early photographic form for some of his personal work. Increasingly his work is presented on paper or in a sculptural form.

Most of his work has a biological or scientific focus and all of it is directed to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Mark Kessell’s work includes series about the development of personality, the life cycle of the human species and, most recently our biological and emotional relationship to animals.

His work has been exhibited and acquired by museums and institutions in the USA and Europe, and has been the subject of a soon-to-be released documentary feature film, “Artists and Alchemists”, several books and a New York Times article. Mark Kessell’s images have been used in movie posters, magazines and newspapers.

Below are some of the museums and major collections which have purchased or exhibited work by Mark Kessell:

George Eastman House (Rochester, NY)

International Center of Photography (New York NY)

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelpia PA)

Los Angeles County Museum (Los Angeles CA)

Museum of Fine Art (Houston TX)

Museum of Art (Santa Barbara CA)

Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego CA)

Center for Photography (Woodstock NY)

New York Academy of Sciences (New York NY)

The Hallmark Collection (Kansas City MO)

The Harry Ransom Collection (Austin TX).

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