About
About Mark
I am a British photographer, media producer and web developer living in the alpine area of central Switzerland. The name “Permanent Tourist” comes from the fact that I’ve been living in Switzerland for several years, after moving here from England. I now always view the world as a tourist, be it in the Bernese Oberland – which I call home – or wherever my photographic tours take me.
I have developed my passions of photography, media production and software development privately and professionally for over twenty years. Programming websites since 1996, I have worked in the internet and multimedia industry for over ten years; currently as Technical Manager of the well-known creative agency !frappant, in the Lorraine district of Switzerland’s capital, Bern. I provide productive, editorial and consultancy support to clients, specializing in front-end web development and code integration to content management systems. (Read more about my career.)
Highly active online and offline in web-based communities, I’m well known in the photographic sphere in Switzerland. I hold an unofficial role within the Flickr community as administrator of the largest Switzerland group – which is regularly updated by several thousand members – and attend many events of photographic interest across Switzerland throughout the year.
I’ve held a key role in promoting offline “meet-up” events for fellow photographers and contributed to several photographic exhibitions over the last twenty years. More recently, I developed the concept for the community-driven bi-annual photographic book Swiss Peeks – Switzerland Through Your Eyes, of which I was Managing Editor during its two year production cycle.
I have co-ordinated collaborative photographic days with the Swiss Strobist group since 2008 and maintain the related group on Flickr, through which I has been able to gain co-operation for my One Frame Movie project.
A life in the alpine area of canton Bern in central Switzerland since 2001 has allowed me to become fully integrated; speaking and writing fluent German and Swiss German on a daily basis and enjoying German language films, television and radio. I’ve made learning Swiss German a priority, in order to converse professionally and socially with Swiss colleagues and clients. I speak and understand French well, and am interested in extending my basic understanding of Italian.
My wife Jody moved from Scotland to live with me during 2006 and we enjoy travelling, photography, nature and walking in the mountains.
