The call of the sea: Mark Power in conversation with Jean Wainwright

29 March 2023

 

Thirty years ago, Mark Power embarked on a journey to photograph the thirty-one sea areas around the coasts of Western Europe to create a visual representation of the shipping forecast. Power’s book, The Shipping Forecast was originally published in 1996 and a newly edited, revised and much-expanded edition including over 100 previously unpublished photographs was released by GOST earlier this year. Here the Magnum photographer talks to Jean Wainwright about his project and their shared love for the sea.

 

 

 

Mark Power is a photographer based in Brighton, on the south coast of England.

Across a 40-year career Power has published 14 books and had numerous museum and gallery shows. He joined Magnum as a nominee in 2002 and became a member five years later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Jean Wainwright is an art historian, critic and curator living in London. She is director of the Fine Art and Photography Research Centre at UCA. As a writer and academic she has published extensively in the contemporary arts field, contributing to numerous catalogues and books as well as appearing on television and radio programmes (including Woman’s Hour, Today Programme, Channel Four and the BBC). Her Audio Arts Archive (begun in 1996) is still continuing and to date she has interviewed over a 1,800 international artists, makers, photographers, filmmakers and curators, 177 of her published interviews conducted for Audio Arts went online at the Tate in 2014. She has published a book of interviews related to the sea Ship to Shore: Art and the Lure of the Sea and curated three major sea related exhibitions.
Powerful Tides: 400 Years of Chatham and the Sea. The Historic Dockyard Chatham. 23rd March -17th June 2018 and Ship to Shore Art and Lure of the Sea SeaCity Museum / John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. 08/02/14 – 04/05/14.