ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
“I thought I could’ve been the next Trent Parke,” he said.
“But as the years crept on, I thought taking these shitty food photography jobs would only be temporary. Just something to tie me over. Then my portfolio of burger shots, breakfast photos and cocktail images got bigger and bigger and all of a sudden, I was the most in-demand food photographer in the wider Diamantina Shire,”
“Yeah sure, the money’s good. But it’s not me.”
There was a time when Mark Ackland used to dream. Now, he says he doesn’t.
The 29-year-old asked our reporter if he knew what Magnum Photos was because it was a dream of his, back when he was studying the art of photography at South Betoota Polytechnic, to one day join the famous photographic collective.
Only the world’s most influential and talented photographers are invited to join the New York-based agency, meaning somebody with hard drive after hard drive of burger photos has ‘fuck all’ chance of every receiving that Magnum invitation in the mail.
“I don’t know what to do? Do I sell everything I own and move to Beirut? What the hell do I know about shooting in the third-world?”
The Advocate reached out to Magnum Photos for comment but have yet to receive a reply.
More to come.
