BIOGRAPHY -
MARK PAULDING (1961 - 2015) Photographer
I was born in Hackney, East London and grew up in Harlow, Essex. I returned to the East End in 2001 to embark on a BA (hons) in fine art, at Central Saint Martins in the Charing Cross Road. Living in Stepney Green, I soon fell in love with the home turf I had never known. My father had lived in Roman Road, when he was a child, a mere few hundred yards from where I live now. As I got to know and love the areas of Stepney, Bow, Whitechapel, Shoreditch, Hoxton and Bethnal Green… the gradual realization of the fragility of all that is set in stone, slowly grew into a sense of urgency.
For the past three years I have been stalking the streets with my camera. It began with a desperate urge to record the changing city. Not in celebration of the new, but in commiseration for all that is quickly becoming the past: Markets, pubs, high streets, old buildings, Victorian streets etc and the people that live and work in them, all stand under the menacing shadow of redevelopment. That is not to say that my work screams of history or political sadness, simply that these fears sparked the desire to photograph the streets.
Having staked claim to this noble endeavour, it soon became apparent that my real interest was not, after all, the streets, but the people that move within them. The street is the all important backdrop that tells the story of the subject. This is hardly new ground. The aim has been the same for all photographers whose subject is people: A photograph of a person records for posterity, that person in the forever changing environment of their time. It is not to preserve the architecture but to save the essence. Not since the Second World War have the old streets of London been so threatened.
Before settling in London I worked as an illustrator and a furniture designer, as well as a manual worker many times. I’ve shown paintings in numerous mixed shows, including the Royal Academy of Art and have sold work all over the world. Also, in my past, I have wasted time.
Mark Paulding's Illustations - www.markpaulding.co.uk
For the past three years I have been stalking the streets with my camera. It began with a desperate urge to record the changing city. Not in celebration of the new, but in commiseration for all that is quickly becoming the past: Markets, pubs, high streets, old buildings, Victorian streets etc and the people that live and work in them, all stand under the menacing shadow of redevelopment. That is not to say that my work screams of history or political sadness, simply that these fears sparked the desire to photograph the streets.
Having staked claim to this noble endeavour, it soon became apparent that my real interest was not, after all, the streets, but the people that move within them. The street is the all important backdrop that tells the story of the subject. This is hardly new ground. The aim has been the same for all photographers whose subject is people: A photograph of a person records for posterity, that person in the forever changing environment of their time. It is not to preserve the architecture but to save the essence. Not since the Second World War have the old streets of London been so threatened.
Before settling in London I worked as an illustrator and a furniture designer, as well as a manual worker many times. I’ve shown paintings in numerous mixed shows, including the Royal Academy of Art and have sold work all over the world. Also, in my past, I have wasted time.
Mark Paulding's Illustations - www.markpaulding.co.uk