Mark Citret (born 1949 in Buffalo, New York) is an American photographer who grew up in San Francisco and has remained deeply rooted in the Bay Area. He began photographing seriously in 1968 and earned both a BA and an MA in Art from San Francisco State University. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Citret has worked as an independent photography professional, maintaining a practice that combines large-format film photography with a contemplative, meditative approach to everyday landscapes and the built environment.

Citret’s visual language is characterized by a deep attention to quiet, often overlooked moments: light falling on a wall, weathered structures in the urban West, and the subtle geometries of natural and industrial forms. He has described his work as an exploration of the “everyday wonders of the visual world,” and his images are known for their tonal richness, architectural precision, and a sense of expansive awareness. Unlike many of his contemporaries who embraced digital processes early, Citret has remained devoted to film and large-format cameras, a choice that informs both the methodical pace of his photography and its material qualities.

A significant body of work, the “Parallel Landscapes” series, was made between 1990 and 1993 using a 35mm camera while traveling. This project marked a departure from his usual large-format work, allowing for a more immediate, spontaneous observation of patterns and fragments in the landscape. In his own account, having been a full-time photographer for over twenty-five years, he began carrying a 35mm camera during those years, capturing images that resonate with his larger project of finding coherence in visual chaos.

Citret’s photographs have been exhibited widely through respected galleries, including Joseph Bellows Gallery in La Jolla, Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York, and Weston Gallery in Carmel. These venues have helped establish his reputation within the tradition of American landscape photography, a tradition shaped by figures like Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, though Citret’s work tends toward a more intimate and less monumental vision. His education at San Francisco State and his ongoing engagement with the Bay Area artistic community have kept him connected to a lineage of West Coast photographic practice.

For collectors and students of photography, Citret’s work offers a compelling bridge between the discipline of large-format craft and a modernist interest in abstraction and formal design. His prints, typically produced in small editions from negative-based processes, exhibit a careful attention to tonal detail and archival quality. While no major monograph has been widely distributed, his images appear in gallery exhibitions and private collections, and his presence in lectures and workshops—such as the one documented by artist Mark Coggins—indicates his role as a mentor and interpreter of photographic seeing.

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