Mark Aitken is an Artist and Academic working with film, photography, writing and radio. Collaborating with people to produce emotionally resonant works, Mark’s research is based on how memories of trauma manifest in our present lives.

 

Mark offers a body of award winning work spanning over 20 years that is unified yet diverse and at home in cinemas, television, galleries, installations, bookshops and on radio. Born in New Zealand and raised in South Africa, Mark has lived in London for many years and presently works between there, Helsinki and Namibia.

 

Currently supported by the Niilo Helander Foundation in Finland to redefine a Namibian/Finnish Photo Archive through new works, Mark is also affiliated to the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies while producing the photo series, Presence of Absence in Finnish Sápmi. The outcomes will include a book, exhibition, sound installation and podcast.

 

Mark’s award-winning films include Dead when I got here (2015) about a Mexican psychiatric hospital run by its own patients; Forest of Crocodiles (2010) about a fearful white South African rural community; Until when you die (2007) tracing a Vietnamese refugee’s journey home and This was Forever (2007) about the loss of a community allotment in London. Mark has also facilitated over fifty films with students.

 

Mark’s photo installation Sanctum Ephemeral and book about a community losing their homes won the UK National Open Art 2017, Portrait of Britain 2017 and was published in national press, magazines and exhibited in group shows in London, Glasgow and a solo show in Catalonia.

 

Teaching since 1990, Mark currently lectures photography, film and scriptwriting at Central St Martins, London. He was awarded his doctorate, Emotional truths in documentary making from Goldsmiths in 2019. Mark produced radio on London’s Resonance fm for 15 years and at Dublab, Barcelona for 3 years.