Mark Castleray

Artist- photographer- writer- historian
Lives in Canterbury, New Zealand, on a horse stud farm.
Began drawing seriously as a ten year old. Purchased first 35mm SLR at sixteen, entered the photographic profession aged 18 after migrating to Melbourne Australia to be employed by the largest photographic company in Australasia in 1979. Formed own company at the age of 22. Retired from the commercial photographic world at the age of 25 to soak my soul in nature by moving back to the South Island of New Zealand to dedicate my life to the principle of beauty and composing fine art photography on large format cameras. Made initial studies on a 5x4 flatbed camera and Ektachrome. After studying the light and color palette of the South Island for a further 4 years, built a photographic laboratory and started composing with an 8x10 large format view camera using Kodak Vericolor III. Considered one of the finest color technicians in Australia, large format color negatives and the corresponding positive prints seemed to me the ideal medium to capture the fascinating purity of light in the land of the long white cloud. The golden period of 1992/93 produced a portfolio of work initially composed for an up market fine art photographic book. 1993...