River Region Magazine

Stealing Beauty One Click at a Time

“When I was a kid I used to think there was something magic about that box. When my dad or my uncle would bring out the box camera everybody paid attention. They would sit up straight or start making funny faces or try to look glamorous like my mother putting on different earrings. Something about that box had an immediate affect on everybody. And I wanted to find out what it was.”.

It’s impossible not to like Mark Dauber. He seems guileless in a way, is witty and disarmingly modest about being a superb photographer. “I’m slightly colorblind so I have to depend on a few people I trust to offer guidance. It would be wonderful to be gifted but in my case I’ve just worked hard all my life.”

That hard work began with a three-year stint in the Army. When he was given the choice between going to Vietnam or teaching photography, guess which he chose. His daughter Emily says, “That’s where he both learned and taught photography. To reach a professional level he had to learn fast.”

Dauber was happy teaching. “It’s one of the things I enjoy most. I feel we have a responsibility to pass on our knowledge and experience because we all ought to spend our lives learning. We never reach a stage in anything when we know it all and can just coast.”

When asked what makes a good photo Mark says, “It’s all about surprise. Let’s see what it looks like after it’s shot. And it has to provide a connection with the photographer so he can gain insight and perspective. Of course, composition is of major importance and light is indispensable. It’s often mainly about light, but the connection with the photographer — I didn’t understand till years later how important that was.”

Dauber’s favorite subjects to photograph are just about everything, landscapes, still lifes, architecture, but portraits most of all. When a photographer friend, Mary Ellen Mark, was asked how she was able to make the subject feel comfortable for a portrait her answer was blunt and honest. “It’s not my job to make them feel comfortable. I’m exploiting them.”

For Dauber that’s literally true. “Of course, we’re exploiting them. We’re stealing their beauty because there’s beauty in everything and everyone. Not pretty, but real beauty, and it’s the task of the photographer to draw that out.”

In the past Dauber has frequently worked on commissions, which usually means being told what and how. Many artists find that too confining, even slightly humiliating, and so they only do it to pay the rent. But Dauber manages to turn a potentially sticky situation into a learning process. “First of all, I always take assignments which frighten me because they force me to do something I wouldn’t otherwise do. Secondly, I try to turn the job into a collaboration between the others and me and so figuring out how to keep us all functioning smoothly becomes a fascinating part of my work. Talk about a learning experience! But however it begins, before it’s over I want us all to reach a stage of mutual respect.”

Dauber says about art that it’s the best part of life, other than relationships, and it even intensifies them. Art inspires people to wake up with a feeling of excitement because it provides so many connections and associations. “Look at this gallery. It’s so enriching and somehow completes the circle in a way, providing an organized outlet for my work. With art you have to get it out there in order to see and feel the response. It’s important for an artist to give him or herself permission to step across the line and to show what their vision of life is.”

We’re sitting in his new gallery in The Alley and he points to a stunning photograph he took some time ago. It’s the fountain downtown taken from a unique angle emphasizing the bricks around the splashing water, feathery trees in the background, a rising fog blanketing everything. Impossible to turn your glance away.

He looks at it with detachment? Satisfaction? What? “An artist so often depends on others. That fountain is beautiful, and it’s a collaboration of engineers, architects, designers, government officials, tax people, street sweepers, the City Council, lots of folks. I’m a product of government support of the arts. In the 60s when I was growing up the government had an arts program where they provided students with paper, pens, paints, other supplies, instructors, people who taught about the famous artists throughout history. My family couldn’t afford any of that. But without that kind of help and instruction I wouldn’t be a photographer today. So I’m naturally in favor of government support of all the arts.”

Many young artists receive a nasty shock when they realize that they not only have to create beauty but they also have to sell it. The commercial aspects of the art world can be daunting but unless you can learn to hustle you’ll be forced to sneak back home to Mother dragging your tail behind you. Dauber was so overwhelmed by the business problems of photography when he left the Army that he went into real estate instead, first selling houses and then moving into the commercial areas. “I don’t play golf or have hobbies so I started doing photography again — thirty years on. And it’s irresistible. Like the band my wife and I play in, the Fabulous Moonshine Cherry Band. She’s the drummer and I play keyboard, both organ and piano, largely self taught. When we have a gig we really get steamed up.”

That’s the way Dauber seems to have lived his life: always take the job which frightens you because it forces you to do things you otherwise would never do.