We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mark Edward Harris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

It’s difficult to pick just one…all my long-term projects mean a lot to me and hopefully have an impact on those that see the results. I’ve always been interested in photo essays and many of them have resulted in books such as my hot springs series resulting in “The Way of the Japanese Bath,” my work with orangutans for the book, “The People of the Forest,” and my 10 trips to North Korea resulting in two books, the later titled, “North Korea.” Covering the last two Olympics and Paralympics have been fascinating but perhaps my work in wartime Ukraine has been the most important in recent history. It’s vital that the world get an accurate picture of what’s going on there.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a very late comer to social media because I’ve been working in places such as Iran, North Korea and Iraq and felt it was best to work under the radar. In recent years and in large measure thanks to some of my corporate sponsors I’ve embraced Instagram and found it an extremely valuable tool to get the word out about what I’m doing and to see what my fellow photographers are up to. I started my career doing the stills for The Merv Griffin Show and when the program ended I set out to create a portfolio of documentary and travel photography which I have been doing ever since. At this point I have 10 books out and two more in the planning stages. My camera has given me the opportunity to explore more than 100 countries and all seven continents.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At one point I was focused on commercial photography, this was economically rewarding but the main purpose was for it to fund my personal projects. The professional photography landscape has changed dramatically. I’ve seen many changes during my career. Going from film to digital is one, the bottom dropping out of the stock photography world is another. I think the latter is due to everyone having image capture devices including smart phones that can create high resolution photos that can be used for stock.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s hard to beat a life of exploring the world camera-in-hand though at times this path can definitely be a lonely one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://markedwardharris.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markedwardharrisphoto/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-edward-harris-90b210b/

Image Credits
photo credits: Mark Edward Harris