About
Soccer and Surfing are my passion, when not taking pictures.
Photographer Mark Kanegis grew up in scenic Rockport Massachusetts, and not without consequences. The eerie and fantastic coastal light – which starts at 4:30 in the morning at midsummer – has a dramatic affect on everything it touches, including its artistically inclined inhabitants. Whether by luck, or by divine intervention, the northern regions of New England are blessed with this superior atmospheric lighting, coupled with many of the most interesting photographic subjects to be found on the planet.
At an early age Mr. Kanegis showed a keen interest for Rockport’s great outdoors, and ways to render it artistically. This combination would shape much of his childhood as he shunned the core studies in favor of a chance to be outside cavorting with nature. After receiving a new camera in high school as a birthday present, the true shutterbug emerged and photography has been his passion ever since.
After graduating from Emerson College with a major in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Psychology, Mr. Kanegis worked in communications and other various fields, including commercial photography. But the passion of outdoor photography would not remain just a hobby. After a three-year stint in the high-tech corporate world (cubicle and all), the time was ripe to make the leap.
In May of 2004, Mr. Kanegis opened the Kanegis Gallery (www.kanegisgallery.com) in Rockport, featuring his Fine-Art Photography from New England and beyond. Using an old Pentax Medium Format Camera, along with a Fuji and a Canon, Mr. Kanegis follows his passion with, at times, reckless abandon. While battling 150-Fahrenheit heat to shoot a blazing bonfire, getting frostbite while photographing -30 wind chilled arctic sea-smoke, or balancing on the knife-edge of a 2000-foot precipice at Zion National Park in Utah, he never backs down from a deserving opportunity to capture the essence of his vision.
Being a self-taught photographer is a source of pride and inspiration for Mark, as he follows in the footsteps of his self-made parents, gallery owners, writers, and master craftsmen in their own right. The wood frames for the 6 Foot Canvas Panoramas are family made in the basement of the house where Mark grew up. It is in every sense a family business.