The Walking Meditations of Mark Perez: Threading Closeness and Culture in Street Photography.
Mark’s father and aunt reunited after decades of separation.
Every time you press the button on a camera, you’re saying yes to life. When you collect a roll full of yeses, you begin to see the picture of who you are.” - Joel Meyerowitz
Through the viewfinder of a Canon AE-1, Mark Perez is an eternal optimist. Brought up in Chula Vista by a Guamanian father and a first-generation Mexican-American mother, he’s the living embodiment of San Diego’s cultural pluralism. Every time he clicks the shutter, he frames the world with a lens of tolerance. On his photo walks throughout the city, he finds himself “drawn to how culture intersects, the way someone wears their culture outwardly … the confidence in their beliefs.”
An aspirational reverence is ever present in his images of a woman wearing a hijab at Sunset Cliffs, an Amish man navigating San Diego International Airport, and Hindu wedding practices at Balboa Park’s Spreckels Organ Pavilion. There’s a vibrancy in his documentation of the city’s increasing diversity immersed in its long-standing landmarks and parks. A threading of culture and closeness that evokes a multicultural utopia. A reach towards a hopeful future for his daughter.
Mark’s Zen-like philosophy on street photography is simple.
“Respect the calm of every space and the beauty of every person,” he said. “With that, see the beauty in yourself.”
A philosophy strengthened by his responsibility as a father to a little girl: “There’s so much backsliding to pain and suffering in the world, so why shouldn’t I document love and closeness?” A style that treats his work as photo-walking meditations meant for capturing stillness in public displays of intimacy.
His trade as a boots-on-the-ground mail carrier for the USPS has afforded him opportunities to continue his practice. One day on his delivery route through Golden Hill, he asked a stranger at a bus stop for a portrait. A disarming presence in postal uniform, he set his viewfinder on someone who encapsulated his pursuit towards closeness and culture.
“with the black and white film, you can’t tell she has green hair, but does it matter?” Mark asked. “She was unapologetic in her appearance, unafraid to stare right through the glass into my eyes.”
One thing is clear, Mark is a seeker with his shutter. He seeks to understand and embrace the cross sections of culture, the pride it provides, and the intimacy it breeds. The possibilities of a loving world that his daughter will inherit.
