After the Last Song
Marcus Stark
After the Last Song [detail] 2025
Portrait of Jane Sonya
Digital photographic print
53.3 x 80 cm
About the Artwork
This portrait was made in the quiet that follows sound. The subject holds an acoustic guitar close to the body, not as an instrument in use, but as something familiar and weight-bearing. Lit sparingly and pressed into shadow, the figure occupies a moment where performance has ended and what remains must be carried.
The image considers what is left after music falls away: the residue of practice, memory, and touch. The guitar becomes both anchor and threshold, a physical object standing in for something no longer present, yet still felt. The body does not play; it endures.
About the Artist
Marcus Stark is a Queensland-based photographer whose practice has largely focused on landscape, wildlife, and the built environment. His work in these genres is grounded in patience, long observation, and an attentiveness to light, form, and atmosphere.
Portraiture represents a recent extension of his practice. Bringing the same measured restraint to the human subject, Marcus approaches portraiture not as performance, but as presence. His images favour stillness and minimal intervention, allowing the body to exist within the frame much as a landscape does—shaped by time, weight, and quiet endurance.