about    

 

  menu

 

 

 

 

 

 

From early on Ken was recognized for his artistic talents—he was quick to reject the convention of coloring within the lines, preferring to go freeform from the moment he picked up a crayon.  At the age of twelve he won a statewide contest for poster design, and when he received his first SLR camera at the age of fifteen, his future was set.

Born on the East Coast, brought up in New York and the Mid-Atlantic, Ken came to Los Angeles in 1990.  He attended a year of graduate studies at Cal Arts, and received his MFA in Studio Art from UC Irvine where he also took graduate courses at one of the top Creative Writing programs in the US.

After grad school, Ken moved to South Korea to teach photography and digital imaging at a private college in the Daegu area. Soon after arriving, he was tapped by the nation’s premiere photo program to teach critical theory, and wrote a series of articles on photography for Sajin Yaesul, South Korea’s fine art photography magazine.

In 1998, Ken returned to the US and taught photography, critical theory, digital imaging, and interactive design to graduate and undergraduate students in the Los Angeles area. In 2004, he took the opportunity to join a group that was designing digital capture systems for some of the top fashion and celebrity photographers in the world. 

Since 2005, Ken has worked closely with photographers like Steven Klein, Craig McDean, and Annie Leibovitz. Over the years he has worked with a variety of artists, and his lighting expertise were employed create the look for Micaela Rossato’s 25th anniversary Guess Watch campaign.

Ken’s photography, digital works, and videos have been featured in exhibitions and festivals throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. And his current work is included in a traveling exhibition created by the Smithsonian Institution that runs through 2015.

His work has been included in books on contemporary art such as Betty Brown’s Art and Mass Media, and in Robert Hirsch’s Exploring Color Photography. His photography has been featured in magazines the US and Korea, and the contemporary art quarterly X-TRA. He has written criticism for Art Papers, and his creative writing has been included in literary journals such as Errant Bodies and Framework.

While Ken continues to produce work in a variety of media and subject areas, his current focus is in the area of fashion photography.

For a wider look at Ken’s practice, please visit his other sites:
www.kenmarchionno.com
300-Miles.org