Mark Strizic was born in Berlin and migrated to Melbourne from Zagreb, Croatia in 1950. Strizic had no formal training in photography, but began taking photographs of Melbourne in the 1950s. He abandoned his studies in physics to become a full-time photographer in 1957, taking up subsequent commissions in architectural, industrial, interior design and portrait photography. Among Strizic’s most widely recognised images are those he created of the city of Melbourne from 1955–70. In the 1970s, Strizic began to use photography in experimental and expressive ways, combining, repeating and transforming elements from his black and white negatives through colour and technical manipulation. He used bright colours to transform symbols of urban ugliness into imaginative, colourful designs that commented critically on the quality of urban Australian society. Strizic exhibited widely and his works are held in many public and private Australian collections. He passed away in 2012.

(2014)