Mark Howells-Mead
I’m a British photographer, designer and web developer and I live in Switzerland. Permanent Tourist is my personal website. I came up with the name because I try to live like an interested visitor, whether at home or elsewhere.
Elsewhere
I’m pretty active in social media channels, and also post content to YouTube and Google Maps.

I speak English and Bernese (Swiss) German fluently, German relatively well, and French passably but with a little hesitation. Through my work on multilingual websites, I also have an understanding of written Italian, and my abilities in German allow me a basic understanding of Dutch.
Long before all this was a twinkle in my eye, I studied to A-level at Salesian College in Farnborough, Hampshire.
My better half
My wife Jo moved from Scotland to live with me during 2006. We married during 2007 in the splendour of Rosslyn Chapel, and combined our surnames. (That’s us, by the way, enjoying the amazing views in the mountains above Zermatt.)

Autobiography
I write long-form blog posts about my life from time to time.
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Remembering Luke the alcoholic.
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A memorable school trip to Oxford University, which ended in the pub.
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Six years before this photo was taken, and after moving up the road from St. Gregory’s…
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I am an introvert and that’s O.K.
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I’m moving to Swiss web agency Say Hello as partner, client consultant and full-stack developer from…
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The long, long progression from being a teenager with a stitch to being a forty-something with…
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Before photography and the internet, golf was the major hobby in my life for many years,…
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The Red Arrows perform at the 2014 Farnborough Air Show.
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The latest in a alphabetic series on aspects of my life: this time, the letter F…
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The simplest solution is rarely the simplest solution.
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An early autumn rainy Sunday drove me down to the cellar today, for a long-awaited clear-out.…
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It was amazing to watch him in the darkroom at an advanced age, still get excited…
Testimonial
Unbeknown to me, during one of my many visits to Switzerland, one of my fellow tourists somehow fell to the temptation of throwing away his return ticket and remain longer than is usually accepted for trippers. He describes himself, quite accurately I think, as the Permanent Tourist.
He now lives in a spacious flat, forever condemned to waking every morning to the sight of the majestic snow-capped alps and turquoise lakes, travel to his cushy lakeside job on the best, most efficient rail system in the world, and spend his weekends amidst scenery that most of us weep at for the sheer spectacle of beauty. To top it all, he does this in the accompaniment of a particularly gorgeous female.
As if this is not enough, he is able to encapsulate all this wonder in which he dwells through his lens with the efficiency of a keen-eyed sniper. Just look yourself, and you’ll see visions that are both stunning, clever and at times amusing. If he went professional, we may as well all throw away our cameras, for we are not worthy.
Graham McKenzie-Smith, 2006
The day job
I’m a developer, designer and partner at Say Hello GmbH: a web agency in Switzerland with a focus on WordPress, API integrations and Progressive Web Apps.
My daily work involves project management, concept work, cross-media solutions and workshop leadership, front-end, back-end and API development, media production, client consultancy, design and sales.
Previously, I’ve been a development manager, team leader, digital developer, media producer, content management system developer and customer services advisor for small, large and international companies based in the U.K. and Switzerland since the 1990s.
Latest blog posts
I write, I plan, I pontificate, I daydream.