Creative Spotlight - Mark Dragon
- Gather
- May 12, 2020
- 3 min read
By: Ana Maria Gomez
For this week's creative spotlight we have Mark Dragon, a photographer born and raised in the Baltimore area. Mark first became interested in photography during high school when he was the yearbook journalism photo editor, he then went to college but eventually left to try and start his career as a photographer in the music industry. He first got into the D.C. EDM scene as a fan in 2016 and noticed other photographers working shows at Echostage (Voted DJ Mag's Number 1 club in the US and number 3 in the world by the way!) he began looking into their work and thought it would be a cool niche to get into.
Mark applied to an internship at Club Glow where he got to shoot a lot of great artists, including Tiesto, Subtronics, i_o, Armin Van Buuren, and Above & Beyond to name a few. He began to gain experience and built his portfolio which led him to an opportunity to help cover Moonrise for ALIVE coverage from 2017-2019 as well as a regular freelance gig shooting for Steez Promo in DC, Virginia, and Baltimore. While Mark loves working in nightclubs to capture the excitement at shows his favorite photography is shooting mountainous alpine landscapes. When he was younger he used to travel a lot with his family but didn’t own a camera yet. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 he has to cancel a dark sky Milky Way photography trip to Utah, though he is hoping to reschedule for next spring. He still sees himself working in the music industry in 5 years, while continuing to expand his landscape and travel photography portfolio and selling photo prints. Mark would love to have his own brick and mortar photo gallery.
"I don’t know if I have a favorite thing about being a photographer, but I would say that just having the opportunity to do what I love makes me feel damn peachy"
One of the biggest challenges he’s faced is trying to stay original and true to himself. He explained it's easy to fall into a rut and take the same kind of shots over and over especially when you work in the same venue. It’s important for him to try new things even if he doesn't know it'll work because if it doesn't he can simply delete. Marks motivation to keep taking photos and continue to improve every time he does a shoot.
I asked Mark what his thoughts were on someone who wants to pursue photography even if they haven’t gone to school for it (asking for myself as well lol) he said someone can definitely get into photography without the schooling. His first camera was a Nikon D3200 which is a good starting camera, and he was mostly self taught. He never took photography class in his life, despite going to film school for 5 semesters before leaving school.
"I’ve found that I learn 10 times more in the field, than I ever did in the classroom. It affords you the luxury of learning from experimentation without the cost of tuition and a grade hanging over your head"
What advice he would give someone who wants to pursue photography as their career?
“If I could give advice to someone who wanted to become a photographer, it would be to work hard, seek advice when you have the opportunity, be humble, and most importantly, be patient. Patience cannot be overstated, particularly in the music industry.”
I would just like to say thank you to Mark for allowing me to write this blog on him, a lot of his answers to my questions left me thinking that we can honestly do anything we set our minds to. If you're currently going through a creative rut or have lost motivation, you're not alone. I am currently in that situation, but by remembering why I began is helping give me that push to get my head back into it.
Make sure to check out his work!
Instagram: markdragon_
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