Mark Fiennes

Mark Fiennes (11 November 1933 – 30 December 2004) was an English photographer and illustrator.

Biography

Mark Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born at Dalton, Northumberland, the eldest of five children of industrialist Maurice Fiennes, who was later knighted by Prime Minister Harold Wilson for his services to the export of British heavy engineering products, and of his wife Sylvia Joan (née Finlay). Mark Fiennes' cousin is Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes.

Education

He was educated at Eton College for several years before he fell ill with glomerulonephritis. In hope of improving his health his parents sent him to Australia, New Zealand and the United States where Fiennes studied agriculture. With his health restored, he returned to England and became a farming tenant on the estate of the Earl of Stradbroke near Blythburgh, Suffolk, where he met and married novelist Jennifer Lash in 1962 at Lothingland. Her passion for art served as an impetus for Fiennes, who took up photography at the age of 40.