About Mark McMahon Article by Dana
Smith March 5, 2001
The
first time I met Mark McMahon was by way of my mouth. I had an accident
and I needed to see a Dentist in the worst way. As life would have it
one thing leads to another and I learn that he is also a juggler, performed
stand-up comedy at clubs around San Francisco, is an award-winning photographer,
and now an author!
Mark
wanders both near and far. It is as if his ship is both inbound from the
sea of his life to a safe harbor, and at the same time outbound to uncharted
water. His photographs and prose are always sent back from the deep far
flung jungles of the world. They are a kind of report on the state of
how things really are on this earth right now.
The frogs, the
bars, tribes, friends, food, water, bugs and thrills and spills of this
and that all soon whirl and twist then fall into place. It is as much
about the landscape as it is about the terrain of his mind. It is as much
about the family of man as it is about this particular man. Those fingers
that probed my gums are the same gentle fingers aiming that camera and
writing this journal!
So,
read the journals, look at the photographs, and then draw your own conclusions.
I believe Mark McMahon is telling us something about the condition of
his heart. He is telling us something about desire, curiosity and a kind
of player's love for the game of life. Some of us just have to take ourselves
off the bench and put ourselves into this game.
The more I visit
my friend here on his web site, the more evidence I find through these
images and stories, these fragments of the here and now, posted in pixels,
at the speed of digital virtuality, a kind of state of things as they
are. I have much admired the poetry of a Jesuit priest by the name of
Gerald Manley Hopkins who wrote from Ireland in the last century. He practiced
writing every day by simply trying to describe something with no care
whatsoever to any other goal. Just take words on paper and capture a thing.
Mark's work is sort of like that. But it isn't for Mark to tell you what
all this means. You get to figure it out for yourself. That's what LiveYourAdventure
is all about!
The
first time I met Mark McMahon was by way of my mouth. I had an accident
and I needed to see a Dentist in the worst way. As life would have it
one thing leads to another and I learn that he is also a juggler, performed
stand-up comedy at clubs around San Francisco, is an award-winning photographer,
and now an author! 
Mark
wanders both near and far. It is as if his ship is both inbound from the
sea of his life to a safe harbor, and at the same time outbound to uncharted
water. His photographs and prose are always sent back from the deep far
flung jungles of the world. They are a kind of report on the state of
how things really are on this earth right now.
So,
read the journals, look at the photographs, and then draw your own conclusions.
I believe Mark McMahon is telling us something about the condition of
his heart. He is telling us something about desire, curiosity and a kind
of player's love for the game of life. Some of us just have to take ourselves
off the bench and put ourselves into this game.
