Mark Arbeit

I was very lucky to have met Helmut Newton while attending Art Center College of Design. The beginning of a friendship and mentorship that lasted 30 years. I started out in Milano, Italy in 1980 shooting magazine editorial, specializing in Beauty, Fashion and celebrity portraiture. In 1985 I moved to Paris and continued my editorial work for magazines. I wanted to expand my artistic side and began a personal art project 'In and Out of Focus' where I place a flower in the foreground with and out of focus nude in the background. For the past 20 years I've worked on personal fine art projects:
ARTIST ATELIER, a series of female nudes in painter/ sculpture studios in Paris.
POLAROID CONSTRUCTIONS, a collection of photomontages made of the Polaroid's positive/ negative and incorporating all the paraphernalia that comes in a Polaroid box.
TORSO, a surreal look at the female nude; covering the head, arms and legs of the model with black velvet, exposing only the torso.
PHOTOGRAMS, Life size photograms of female nudes, lying on silver gelatin photo paper, photographed and developed all in a darkroom.
HAWAIIAN, 8X10 inch Deardorff camera on a study of the Hawaiian Islands. Photographing the island people and landscapes.

Art Center College of Design - Photography
University of Hawaii - Art and Photography

06/2025 Photo Basel -LIGHTWORKS gallery, 'Fashion Photography' - 'In and Out of Focus', Basel, Switzerland

03/2025 - -MIA Photo Fair - LIGHTWORKS gallery, 'Out of Focus', 'In and out of Focus', Milan, Italy

12/2023 - Fine Art Images Gallery, 'In and Out of Focus' Chieri, Italy

6/2019 - Helmut Newton Foundation 'Three Boys from Pasadena' - Torso series, Photograms, Polaroid Montage, Artist Atelier, In and Out of Focus, HNF, Berlin, Germany

11/2016 - COFA Contemporary - Kaune Contemporary gallery, 'Artist Atelier', Cologne Germany

4/2016 - Kaune gallery for Contemporary Photography 'Les Ateliers Paris', Cologne Germany

4/2013 - Kaune gallery - 'Photograms and Polaroid Constructions', Cologne, Germany

10/2012 - EyeLoco gallery 'Three boys from Pasadena' 10/2012 - 4-day Artist in Residence with EyeLoco gallery 'Photograms', Antwerp, Belgium

6/2012 - Williamson gallery, Art Center College, 'Three boys from Pasadena', Torso series, Artist Atelier, In and Out of Focus, Fashion and Portraits. Pasadena, California

03/2012 - 'Three Boys from Pasadena' Kaune-Sudendorf gallery, 'Artists Atelier series'. Cologne, Germany

12/2010 - 'Three boys from Pasadena' Clic gallery, In and Out of Focus series, Artist Atelier series, NYC

06/2010 ...