“A System of Edges” by Mark Power.
from “A System of Edges” © Mark Power/Magnum Photos
“Now that everyone in the developed world seems to own some form of camera, a different space has opened for documentary photographers. It’s a space free from specific events, where there are different expectations, where it is first and foremost about ideas. Now we can all take pictures, with varying degrees of consistency, more than ever before it’s about what we do with photography.”-Mark Power/Magnum Photos
In this new personal work, “A System of Edges“, Power explores the edges of London using the inspiration of the London A to Z, the most popular atlas in the UK. A System of Edges looks at those landscapes unlucky enough to fall just off the edge of the map and which could be said to define the boundaries of the capital. Places where, as the map suggests, the city falls away into nothingness, into non-space; indistinct, without identity.
His previous personal project, The Shipping Forecast, a poetic response to the maritime weather reports broadcast daily on BBC radio brought Powel to the art galleries scene. The forecasts’ abstract, esoteric language inspired him to discover exactly what these far-flung land and seascapes actually looked like. The work took four years to complete; the resulting exhibition was seen at over 20 galleries throughout Europe. Hailed by critics, The Shipping Forecast won the Yann Geffroy International Documentary Prize, the Mosaique European Photography Award, and the special jury prize in the Oskar Barnack Award.
Mark Power joined Magnum Photos in 2002 and became an Associate in 2005.
