Artist Biography

M. Robert Markovich was born in Munich, Germany and has been photographing, exhibiting, and publishing since 1978. His work has been featured at Photo LA 2019, In the Sunshine of Neglect at the California Museum of Photography, at Bonham’s Art Auction and has been published by Academy Editions London, Rizzoli International and the Whitney Library of Design. His work is in numerous public and private collections.


Markovich’s work has been shown in exhibitions and published with Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Tom Bonner, Matthew Bryant, Judy Chicago, Darryl Curran, Joe Deal, Lewis DeSoto, John Divola, Christina Fernandez, Anthony Henandez, Ron Jude, Sant Khalsa, Matt Lipps, Richard Misrach, Douglas McCulloh, Tom McGovern, Grant Mudford, Allan Sekula, Julius Schulman, Aline Smithson, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Joel Sternfeld, Rusty Scruby, Kim Stringfellow, Tim Street-Porter, Henry Fox-Talbot, and Mary Yankouvof among others.


Markovich curated a traveling exhibition of photography, On and Off the Street, which examines public and private space in street photography. The exhibition originated at the University of California Palm Desert Center and traveled to the Annenberg Beach House, the Progress Gallery and the Santa Ana College Santora Art Gallery from 2018 to 2020. Markovich lives and works in the Southern California area.  

                                                                                 

Artist Statement

I use photography to explore relational issues of desire, memory, place and apparatus, often through a reductivist lens.

Subject matter manifests as architecture, landscape, infrastructure, text, and still life depending on the project.


Some projects have a finite completion, some lead into one another, and some are ongoing over a long period of time. The tools may change but the process of the development of the work is very similar. A prototype idea may be worked on for some time before images are processed, printed and compiled into a portfolio. Not all completed projects are on the site, but most are here. Additional projects may be added in the future.


Each project page has a brief statement with specific details about the work.


Professional Background

Markovich has been photographing and printing from the prime of medium and large format color film photography in the 1980s and 1990s, to adopting early integration of advanced digital print workflows, and hybrid workflows of film and digital technology. All work is self-printed, from the old days of total darkness in the color darkroom, to current large format digital scanning and printing techniques. Markovich earned his Bachelors Degree in Studio Art/Photography with a minor in Film and Visual Culture from University of California Riverside, and a Master of Arts Degree in Studio Art from California State University San Bernardino. He has worked in the photography industry, and higher education, working as the Digital Media/Photography Specialist at Chaffey College, integrating technology into curriculum. He retired from the college to concentrate on art production, archiving and curating.