Musical chairs, 2025

People often comment that my photography gives them a sense of déjà vu and longing, even when they know they’ve never been to the places photographed. They find something familiar, something intangible that can be related to. The scenes that I choose to document are clearly ordinary life, commonplace and mundane. However it is the approach to these scenes – the human presence – despite an abject lack of a person, the personality of objects within, the tangible details and the importance of documenting scenes that tend to disappear over time – that for me combine to create the work. Photograph made on medium format film.

Mark Forbes is best known for his considered and atmospheric documentary photography of urban landscapes and interiors. He employs film as his medium of choice for personal documentary work – using predominantly traditional medium format cameras.

Forbes’ approach to photography comes from an underlying fascination with people and the interaction with their environment. His recent work has focussed on memories – both individual and shared, anthropomorphism and the experience of Déjà vu. He has an uncanny knack of bringing personality to the ordinary.

Forbes’ debut monograph Collected memories was published by the German publisher Hatje Cantz in 2023. Shortly after printing, a book signing event was held at Paris Photo 2023. The book was a shortlisted finalist at PHOTO 2024 for the Australian & New Zealand Photobook of the Year.

He was the winner of The Gomma Grant (2019, best colour photograph), a two time winner of the OptiKA Photographic Award (2024 & 2020), 2nd place in the IPA Professional awards in the Analog Fine Art category (2024 & 2022), the runner up in the Head On Portrait Award (2021), and has been a finalist in many renowned Art Prizes including the Blake Prize, Olive Cotton Award, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Percival Photographic Portrait Prize, Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art, CLIP Award, Lake Art Prize, Footscray Art Prize, Mullins Conceptual Photography Prize, Gosford Art Prize, Lethbridge Landscape Prize, Lethbridge Art Award, Wyndham Art Prize and the Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize (semi finalist).

His limited edition prints and books are held in public and private collections, in Australia and internationally.