“To step into the picture is to step outside the self..”

ABOUT

RICHARD MARK DOBSON is a British photographer with an international career spanning over three decades. Born in Bradford, England, and raised in South Africa, he trained in graphic design before beginning his photographic career in London assisting leading advertising photographer Duncan Sim.

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Since establishing his first studio in Hong Kong, Dobson has lived and worked across Europe, Africa, and Asia, photographing people and places for leading corporate, editorial, and advertising clients alongside long-term personal and documentary projects.

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Portraiture has remained a consistent thread throughout his practice, reflecting a long-standing interest in character and the human presence within the environments people inhabit.

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IMAGINARIUM is a travelling portrait theatre — a visiting photographic studio where performance, costume, and image-making converge.

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The project invites participants to step briefly beyond themselves into staged worlds inspired by cinema, theatre, propaganda art, vintage travel imagery, and cultural memory.

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Using handcrafted props, improvised costumes, and stylised colour backdrops, each session becomes a small act of transformation — part portrait sitting, part performance, part social play.

The resulting photographs balance humour and homage: affectionate satire, theatrical exaggeration, and the pleasure of seeing oneself momentarily reimagined.

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IMAGINARIUM appears by invitation within studios, galleries, festivals, and cultural spaces — a temporary photographic stage where visitors enter as themselves and depart as something slightly more mythic.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Published Editorial

GEO (Germany), GEO (France), GEO Special (Germany),GEO (Russia) GEO Saison (Germany), Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung, Financial Times (UK), National Geographic Adventure (USA), National Geographic Traveler (USA), Toyota Infront Magazine (UK), Landrover ONELife Mag (UK) Guardian (UK), Restaurant Magazine (UK), Guardian on Sunday (UK), MERIAN Magazine (Germany), 100 Ideas Jardin (France), Conde Nast Traveler (USA), Air France Madam (France), Outside Magazine (USA), World Traveler (USA), New York Times, Departures (USA), International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Asia Inc (Hong Kong) Discovery (HK), Expression (Amex Publishing), Islands Magazine (USA), Forbes Magazine (USA),Travel & Leisure (USA) Town & Country (USA),Orient Magazine (Hong Kong), Morning Calm (Korean Air), Silk Road (Dragon Air) Business Traveller (Hong Kong), Business Traveller (UK), Mandarin Oriental (HK), Outside Magazine (USA) Lufthansa Magazine (Germany).

Published Advertising

Couldrey Jones (Hong Kong),Thompson’s (HK), Thompson’s Megacom (HK), Couldrey Jones (HK), Couldrey Jones (HK), BATES Advertising (Thailand), Old Shanghai Firecracker Factory (South Africa),Grey Advertising (SA), BLGK BATES Advertising (HK), Ogilvy & Mather (SA), Mc Cann Erickson (SA), Network (SA), Saatchi & Saatchi (SA), SMLB Leo Burnett (SA), The Agency (SA), Grey Advertising (SA), DMB&B (SA), King James Advertising (SA), Ogilvy & Mather (SA), TBWA Fusion (SA), TBWA Paris Nissan Z350 ‘cops’ Cannes ’05 TBWA Paris Spontex Cannes Silver ’05,TBWA Fusion, Jupiter Drawing Room (SA), Joe Public (SA).

Published Corporate

Business Enterprises Dong Fang Hotel Brochure China, HKTDC (Hong Kong Trade Development Council), Hill & Knowlton H.K. Ltd, Re-Act Communications Credit Lyonnaise, Hilton Hotel Hong Kong, Dalat Resorts Inc, Dalat Pine Lake Golf Course, Island Shangri-La Hotel. Hong Kong, Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel Hong Kong, Park Lane Hotel Hong Kong, DWC Tang Development China Club-Peking, International Herald Tribune China Summit-Beijing, DWC Tang Development. China Club Peking, Shanghai Tang Hong Kong, International Herald Tribune-Korea Summit, Stocks Leisure Resorts. Bakubung, Kwa Maritane, Andersen Consulting (SA),TheYamu Thailand, Movenpick Jordan.,Abu Dhabi Golf & Equestrian Centre, PearlValley golf estate Cape Town, New World Hotel Saigon, Ramana Hotel Saigon, DWP Saigon, Veolia Water Systems, Ale Heavy Lift UK, Strategic Marine Australia.

NGO’s

Greenpeace Africa, Medicine Sans Frontiers, British Red Cross.

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Books

Karoo Moons ‘A photographic journey’.

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Films

Pendulum Control.  Winner Palandino D'Oro Sports Film Festval 'Best Extreme Film' 20205

Awards

Cannes Lion festival and D&AD for his advertising work, and has been included in the prestigious London Association of Photographers awards 2007 & 2008 and SILVER 2009.