Mark Lipczynski (pronounced “lip-chin-ski”) is a photographer and visual communicator. He enjoys the learning process while making pictures, telling stories and transcribing raw emotion into visual language. Mark studied journalism at the University of Maine, Orono before going on to shoot for newspapers across the country.
After leaving his last newspaper job at The Arizona Republic, Mark ventured out on his own investing everything into commercial, editorial and fine-art photography full-time. Today, he stays close to Phoenix, where he continues probing more deeply into coincidental encounters, personal anxieties and human folly.
American West
Growing up in Ohio, my impressions of the American West were distorted by cartoons and black-and-white movies. Now I live in the suburbs of Arizona, among palm trees and tract homes, and the occasional dust storm—quite the opposite of Ohio. But my story is similar to that of a great many who traveled west before me in search of something greater.
It’s easy to challenge popular beliefs that glorify Western lore. Steeped in philosophical contradictions over progress, cultural appropriation and general oblivion, there remains a disorienting beauty that, despite all of its ironies, draws people out of the woodwork eager to define their own experience in this void.
Although my appreciation for this place runs deep, even as an outsider uncertain of where I fit in to it all, concern swells within me like a rolling cloud of dust that the authentic American West experience may well perpetually be overrun by ideas of progress.
To see more of Mark’s work visit his website