INTERVIEW Mark Cluney

MEET MARK CLUNEY

The face behind Cluney Photography

1. Tell me a little about your self and what you do? 

Well, my name is Mark Cluney and I'm a photographer. I take pictures of things I see that I think are beautiful. Sometimes that looks like a wedding/engagement (a love story, really) or a fleeting, insignificant moment that I know I'd forget tomorrow if I didn't have a picture of it. I guess, in short, my job is to be obsessed with beauty.


2. How did you get started?: 

I had always felt like an artist, but I'd never been able to draw or paint or play an instrument well enough for anyone to want to listen. I was studying Creative Writing and Poetry in college (and loved it), but there was always something in me that wanted to see the beautiful things I was reading/writing about, so I dropped out and went to art school in San Francisco. I had a friend who was a succesful photographer and he helped get me started in photography. 


3. How would you describe your personal style? 

Oh man...I have no idea. I feel like it changes with everything I shoot. Usually, it ends up being nostalgic and romanticized. 


4. What advice do you have to offer to others just starting out?:

Please...don't try to photograph like someone else. You will never be as good at being them as they are. Learn from other people, figure out what it is about a certain person's work that you like, and remember it. And then find someone else's work that's completely different and do the same thing. You'll formulate a style that's unique to you, and no one else will ever do it as well as you do.


5. What inspires you?

Everything. Love, classical guitar, old cameras, J. Crew, To the Lighthouse, confabulation, black coffee, The Stones, For Lovers Only, people and places from my past.


6. What's your most cherished item? 

My wedding ring. And my Hasselblad.

Make sure to check out his Facebook page!