Marc Stanes was born in England in 1963, and began photographing at the age of fourteen with a camera borrowed from his father. For over twenty-five years, he has received wide acclaim for his black and white and colour photography of flowers, landscapes and the human form, which demonstrate his fascination with the beauty, sculptural quality and the abstract constructions of nature.
Stanes' photography has always been pared down and minimal, which allows the viewer to develop their own ideas from the images they see. He works in large format and creates silver gelatin prints and chromogenic light jet prints that capture the texture and tone of the subject, creating sharp, languid and bold portraits of both flowers and the human form.
Stanes’ work is inspired both by sixteenth and seventeenth-century still life painters and the colours, and the sights, imagery and light in South Africa, where he now lives. Since 2003, he has photographed extensively in South Africa for the Mandela Rhodes Foundation as their official photographer, and his acclaimed portraits of Nelson Mandela form part of the Mandela visual legacy.