I had known Mark for over 40 years. I met Mark in September of 1979 when I moved to Chapel Hill from Long Island, NY. We both worked at Foister’s camera store; there’s a photo of Mark and a few of our co-workers in the album above. Of the several employees there, Mark and I “clicked”. He was funny, very bright, witty and he loved photography. Foister’s was one of the only Leica dealers in the area and I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason he worked there. Mark had a way of appreciating excellence - and Leicas were it with respect to cameras. He had a unique way of expressing his appreciation for well conceived design and manufacturing - he held the camera in a way that’s hard to describe - a kind of sensual reverence I suppose. It was the same for computers, electrostatic stereo speakers, photo processing, printing, theories, relationships and most importantly friendships.

Friendships were not relationships of convenience or proximity for Mark, he took them seriously and went out of his way to keep in touch and to visit. Aside from our initial meeting, we were rarely living in the same city. At one point before the internet, we would send each other rolls of film with caption sheets - these were are “film letters”. When we talked or visited, he would listen to what I was saying and would ask questions and wasn’t taking short cut responses; he wanted details and was truly interested. I remember discussing that I was going through a rough patch with a woman I was seeing. He listen and gave me his perspective and not long after, I received a CD in the mail with a long list of songs matched to my particular situation. To this day I think of him when I play these songs, more than the woman in question.

On September 11, 2001 I spoke with Mark and expressed my concern that my brother Chris had been confirmed to have been in WTC 2 earlier that morning and that after the collapse, no one had heard from him. He spoke rationally about scenarios and offered to help in anyway that he could. I told him I would let him know when I heard any news and that the likelihood of me traveling to NYC from my home in Chapel Hill seemed imminent. My niece was a freshman at UNC at the time and we decided to drive up to Long Island after a day of not hearing anything from Chris. Mark volunteered to come along if we could stop in DC to pick him up which we did. He offered to take photos of family and friends and to be there for support which we needed for the next several days of waiting for any news. We had between 12 - 20+ people coming and going and sleeping in all sorts of places at Chris’ beach cottage at West Gilgo Long Island; from there we waited. Mark photographed my family, friends, visitors over a period of 10 days and concluded with Chris’ Memorial service on September 22, capturing a difficult time on film which I and family will value forever. This is a link to a slide show of those images.