Latest Donation of Mark L. Power ’59 Pictures

Frank Goodyear (FG): I’m wondering if we may begin firstly with Mark’s early training. I do know he grew up in Washington, D.C., within the Virginia space. How did he find yourself going to Bowdoin? Did he have a very good expertise right here? 

Virginia Power (VP): He went to Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island. It was a boarding faculty, and he graduated from highschool there. I have no idea why he selected Bowdoin; maybe as a result of buddies from Portsmouth Priory have been going there. 

FG: Was he a very good scholar? Do you understand what he majored in? 

VP: I do not suppose he was a very good scholar. However, I’d wish to say that I do not imagine that Mark was reduce out for faculty. He appreciated it there, and I feel he would have stayed had it not been for the truth that he thought he was going to be drafted into the U. S. Army. At the time, the Korean battle was starting to construct, so he determined to go away Bowdoin after a yr to affix the Army.  

FG: Did he return to high school after his service?

VP: He served within the Army from 1957 to 1960. Following his navy service, I imagine he attended the Arts Center School in Los Angeles for a few yr. In 1961, he moved again to Washington and enrolled at American University. 

FG: Do you could have a way of when he first began making images? Was this one thing that he pursued as a toddler? Is it one thing that he found at school or after school? 

VP: He found pictures whereas he was within the Army, partially as a result of he met George Krause, who had additionally joined up. I’m undecided what duties they have been assigned, however they have been each in the identical unit, they usually linked. George was an enormous affect on Mark at that time when it comes to pictures. He knew a fantastic deal about artwork historical past and was already taking images. Their friendship endured for years after they each left the Army, they usually remained buddies till Mark died in 2020. I’m nonetheless in contact with George, who’s now in his late eighties. He visited us on the farm and took many journeys with Mark to Mexico and Spain, the place they might consistently take images. George additionally got here to England whereas we have been dwelling there, and Mark organized a present for him at a gallery in Norwich, England. George shared Mark’s love of pictures and appeared in lots of Mark’s images. 

FG: What form of images was he making when he first began taking photos? Did he gravitate in direction of a selected style? Did he see himself as a wonderful artwork photographer or a documentarian? How do you characterize his early years in pictures? 

VP: He started taking images of household and buddies, primarily of his household. He took many photos of his father and mom on their farm in Virginia. The identical farm served because the backdrop for a lot of of his early images. I feel he all the time noticed himself as a wonderful artwork photographer. This was earlier than he began the Icon Gallery of Washington in 1968. 

FG: Did you get a way of what Mark needed to do professionally after he left the Army? Why did he come again to Washington to make a life? 

VP: I feel he got here again to Washington due to his household. It was his staging level all the time. At a really younger age, he lived together with his household close to Dupont Circle. The Washington space was the place he grew up, and he got here again to it, like a number of us do. Then it was merely a matter of what he would do subsequent. His father partially supported him financially to open the Icon Gallery with Charlie Tompkins. That was a serious step ahead when it comes to displaying different folks’s artwork, which he actually needed to do. He needed to deliver wonderful artwork pictures to Washington. It wasn’t there in 1968. He stored the gallery going by doing freelance work concurrently. I’m undecided precisely what kind that took, nevertheless it may need included weddings or taking portraits of individuals to assist himself financially. 

FG: In phrases of constructing a pictures program on the Corcoran, was that call to become involved in instructing additionally impressed by a need to boost pictures’s profile within the area?

VP: It began as a result of he had a good friend, Jerry Lake, who was instructing pictures on the Corcoran. Jerry took Mark on as an assistant. They labored collectively instructing pictures earlier than any explicit curriculum was established. When Jerry left, Mark took it over. It was then that he started to construct a considerable pictures program. He employed Joe Cameron and Frank DiPerna, they usually all agreed that they wanted to construct an accredited program on the Corcoran. Eventually, it was a fully-fledged program and attracted a fantastic many gifted photographers.

FG: You had not met Mark at this level. You arrived just a little bit afterward the scene. Am I appropriate? 

VP: No, truly, I met Mark in 1968. I had a detailed good friend at the moment who was additionally a photographer, who experimented with very daring hand-colored work. We went to the Icon Gallery in the future, the place we met Mark, who then needed to offer him a present. That was my first introduction to Mark.

FG: As an educator on the Corcoran, have been there sure recurrent classes that he imparted to his college students?

VP: In the darkroom, he was a grasp printer. That, in itself, was a lesson to them: find out how to print as greatest they may. But extra importantly, a minimum of to me, was Mark’s great, unassuming method to college students. He wasn’t the standard instructor who stated, “I think you should change this in your photograph,” or “I think you should make this more prominent.” Instead, he requested them to specific their emotions about their images. He most popular to offer them the choice to debate their images slightly than instructing them to method the work differently. He made them really feel snug and answerable for their work in a quiet, unassuming method. He was a unprecedented instructor that method. He devoted his time not solely to reviewing their work earlier than discussing it, however he additionally gave them one-on-one consideration. 

FG: I perceive what you’re saying, and also you’ve described it fairly fantastically. There is a nurturing of a relationship and seeing the coed as a human being who’s grappling with comparable points. It’s greater than merely studying to develop work in a darkroom. Photography is a method we have interaction with the world, and my sense is that Mark needed to have a dialog with college students on that stage. Let’s speak about Mark’s personal pictures. In photos with you and studying extra about Mark’s profession, I discover it tough to pigeonhole him in a single photographic style. It strikes me that he created a fantastic number of totally different photographic tasks. I’m wondering how you’d characterize the form of photographer he was.

VP: This is a very attention-grabbing query as a result of Mark created quite a few collection, lots of which have been fairly distinct. It’s laborious for me to say what went via his thoughts, however he had an incredible creativeness and was very inventive. He was consistently shifting ahead, enthusiastic about totally different themes. He didn’t typically plan out precisely what he needed to do, however when he began a gaggle of images, he started to assemble themes. I feel that’s how he approached a number of his collection. Mark was anyone who by no means went anyplace and not using a digicam. He was all the time taking images. He took up pictures as a result of he beloved creating photos. It was his complete life. If the pictures have been acknowledged and proven, and he was acknowledged, that may please him. But that was not the rationale behind his work. 

FG: That’s very useful. I gravitate to the Rita Hayworth collection as a result of I discover it so splendidly unique and modern. The concept of utilizing pictures to inform a narrative, to think about the lifetime of a star, to make use of fashions and set them in a selected place, and to style the entire scene, I feel it’s all splendidly compelling.

VP: I do know what you imply. I agree. The Rita Hayworth collection was tailored right into a e-book, however the images stand out individually. We labored collectively on that venture as a result of I used to be the mannequin for therefore lots of them. I started to know what he needed from these images. His daughters, Rachel and Shelagh, additionally performed a major position within the Rita Hayworth images, in addition to lots of his different collection. 

FG: Did he provide you with course? 

VP: Our trade was all the time casual. I could be within the backyard sunbathing, and he would come over together with his digicam, and he would possibly say, “Can you move your head a little bit that way?” or “Can you turn your body to face the catalpa tree?” It was very relaxed.

FG: How vital to Mark was it that the narrative he was creating in his images matched the precise lifetime of Rita Hayworth? 

VP: I feel he took fairly a little bit of license along with her story. However, he appropriately listed dates and the names of her mother and father and varied husbands. 

FG: Mark did a number of work out at your loved ones farm in Virginia. What was it in regards to the farm that resonated with him as an artist? Was it the reminiscences of household, the historical past of that place, the land itself? 

VP: Yes, the historical past of the place, certainly the great thing about the place. There have been magical issues in regards to the farm. This connection to his childhood, dwelling, and household reminiscences led him to revisit these reminiscences and take images there. He was very near his father, and I feel his father’s loss of life shook him. Certain issues in the home reminded him of his father, so he created these reminiscences in his images, typically mystical ones. His father was an architect by commerce however turned a author and painter who moved with Mark’s mom to the farm within the Nineteen Thirties. I recall the great murals he painted on most of the home’s partitions. I keep in mind him all the time being supportive of Mark’s pursuits. 

FG: One remaining query. Do you could have a way of how Mark would wish to be remembered? 

VP: This is a tough query. I known as two of his daughters final evening: Shelagh first after which Rachel. They have been each very near him. Both stated that he want to be remembered as a author and an modern photographer who by no means stopped working and believed deeply in creative expression. He was additionally an individual who defended the suitable to specific oneself. He fought towards censorship, most famously in the course of the controversy surrounding a Corcoran exhibition of images by Robert Mapplethorpe, which conservative members of Congress sought to close down. He took a number one position in writing about this challenge. It was enormous for him. I feel he would wish to be remembered as a instructor. I don’t know whether or not he set out in life to turn into a instructor, however he turned extremely good at working with college students. At his memorial pictures present at Glen Echo, I used to be so struck by the numerous college students who got here as much as me or later wrote to me, sharing the profound impression Mark had made on them. He must be remembered for his generosity of spirit and his wry humorousness. I miss him terribly. He had an infinite impression on my life. He was such a stunning human being on so many ranges.