Capturing The Legends, Statements And Stars

A trained actor from New York City who professionally took up photography in 2004, Mark Bennington has since then earned a reputation for his unique style of photography. He worked as an actor for over 10 years in America, and has even tried his hands out as an actor in Bollywood with two feature films including Dibakar Banerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. His latest work comes in the form of a unique photography book titled fwhich has recently been published and released as a coffee table book by Harper Collins India. We speak to the photographer about his journey from being in front of the camera to being behind it, the concept behind his latest book, and how his experience has been working in India.

- Abhishek Desai

Photography was never Mark Bennington’s first choice of profession. After working as a professional actor for 10 years in New York and Los Angeles, Bennington first picked up a camera in 2003. He was looking for something new and creative, feeling a little bored with his acting career. He started photographing all of his friends in Hollywood, and doing their headshots and portfolios, etc. Bennington put a book together and took it to his talent agency. The agency liked his work and sent him a few clients. “Those first few clients started auditioning like mad, so they then sent me tons of people after that. In fact, that first year they sent me over 300 clients. I was suddenly making my living as a photographer and loving the newness and creativity of it. Within those first 6 months, I realised that if I was charging people for my services, I should probably know what I was really doing - so, I went back to school for photography and later photojournalism.”