Photographer of the Week #120: Mark Sommerfeld

Our Next Photographer of the Week is Mark Sommerfeld. Sommerfeld is a self-taught photographer currently based in Toronto.

For this feature, we are sharing images from Sommerfeld’s series Inny Outty.

“Limbs, texture, motion (or the illusion of it) and opposites have always been inspirations. Inny Outty is a collection of non-sequitur images plucked from different times and places. Together, the images form a sort of logic or curious pattern, to me, but necessarily tell a slightly different story to each viewer.” – Sommerfeld

In this body of work, Sommerfeld’s focus is to document subjects in the every day that transcend their original meaning when pulled out of context. Shooting with a stark flash, Sommerfeld highlights every minute detail of the subjects he is photographing. This approach makes each image feel significant, as if there is a vital reason as to why Sommerfeld is presenting them to us. Like its title Inny Outty, an audience is left to decipher internal meaning from each photograph, based solely on what we can interpret from the surface. The central subjects are generally masked by other components in the frame, leaving viewers to question what they are looking at. Together, this collection of obscure photographs present a non-linear narrative left open to viewers to piece together themselves. Sommerfeld describes his practice as “shifting toward a non-fiction, documentary based photography, with a spin.”

Sommerfeld’s work has been exhibited in group shows across Toronto and his first self-published book For Now will be released later this year.

To check out more of Sommerfeld’s work, please visit his website.