About Mark Petty
I’m half Sicilian but grew up in Tulsa because I also have Cherokee ancestors who walked the Trail of Tears in the 1830s; forced from their home in Georgia by Andrew Jackson. More than 100 years later I attend Andrew Jackson elementary school where they try to teach me he’s a hero. Those experiences inspire me to photograph the ironies and injustice I see in everyday American life. It has influenced my desire to document those whose circumstances are less fortunate than mine. I've flown through two hurricanes but I’m never free-falling from a plane again. Glad I did, but . . .
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Thanks,
Mark
Work in Permanent Collections
My photographs are in the permanent collections of several museums and private collections around the nation. Notable works include:
Carville, No Place for Cowards, a photographic documentary by me and my wife Marty from the late 1970s on the leprosy patients living at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Carville, Louisiana.
New Orleans Museum of Art: Twenty 16” x 20” prints
McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies, University of Missouri School of Journalism: Forty-two 16” x 20” prints plus high-resolution scans of more than 200 negatives.
National Hansen's Disease Museum: Twenty 11” x 14” prints
Portraits of Stetson Kennedy and Phyllis Stackhouse
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Bob Dylan in concert with the Rolling Thunder Revue April 28, 1976
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH
Four religiously-themed 16” x 20” prints
Church Mutual Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI
Nixon Resigned in My Parents’ Living Room
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL • 2007
Events/Shows
Self-produced shows in my downtown St. Pete gallery in the early 2000s resulted in it being named “Best Small Gallery in Tampa Bay.” Other notable shows at other venues include:
More Than Retro: Art Photography of the 1970s.
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL • 2021
Work featured: Nixon Resigned in My Parents’ Living Room
Alongside: Burk Uzzle, Garry Winogrand, Robert Rauschenberg, Eve Arnold, Judy Dater, and Henry Holmes Smith.
A Fresh Start
The Studio at 620, St. Petersburg, FL • 2021
Work featured: The Scary Night, Reese Needs a Hug, Somebody’s Pod
Alongside: Antonio Brasko, Peter Mantice, Kim McAninch, Rachel Schwemin, Andree Tracey, Casey J. Wullner
Warm Down, Cool Up. Feeling Sense in a Nonsensical Climate,
Allerton Gallery, Greenville, SC • 2020
Work featured: WASP in Paradise, Helix, Night Blooming Cereus, Snail, Hibiscus
Alongside: Polly Parke, Marco Maggi, Matthew David Roberts, Jessie Henson, Beth Herman Adler, Kiwha Lee Blocman, Ross Alexander, Rachelle Dang, Zac Hacmon.
The Same But Different
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL • 2017
Work featured: Phyllis Stackhouse and Family
Alongside: Jerry Uelsmann, Robert von Sternberg, Sebastião Salgado
Carville, No Place for Cowards, A Documentary Project on Leprosy
McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies, University of Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, MO • 2015
Work featured: Carville Essay
Alongside: My wife, Marty Petty
Witness the Moment
An exhibit of photojournalistic images from MFA’s permanent collection
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL • 2007
Work featured: Nixon Resigned in My Parents’ Living Room
Alongside: Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Smith, Burk Uzzle, Alfred Eisenstadt, Robert Capa, Elliot Erwitt and others.
Wipe Your Feet Please
The Studio at 620, St. Petersburg, FL • 2007
Work featured: Retrospective solo exhibit
underCURRENT/overVIEW7
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL • 2004
Juried show
Work featured: Installation entitled Staurophobia (fear of crucifixes) included the photographs Cross Country Traveler, Vacation Bible School, plus three mixed media pieces - photographs and religious icons inside of cross-shaped wooden boxes.
Alongside: Sue Turconi, Wendy Babcox, Elizabeth Coffman/Ted Hardin, Jeff Whipple, Dee Hood
1980 World Press Photo Competition International Exhibit - Amsterdam
Featured work: Carville, No Place For Cowards.