About Mark
Mark Burkey is a UK cave photographer. He can be found underground most weekends photographing some of the most spectacular locations in the country. His qualifications in confined space and as a level 3 IRATA abseiler mean his skill set is often utilised within industrial settings.
Awards/Publications
Winner of 'Adventure in the Outdoor' and 'People's Choice' awards at the 2017 Kendal Mountain Festival. His first foray in to the world of film, a collaboration documenting cave diving exploration in Croatia 'The Master Cave' premiered in the 2018 Petzl underground session of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival.
He has won the Mendip Cave Photography Competition three years running: 2015, 2016 & 2017.
Twice winner of the UK's prestigious Premier trophy at Hidden Earth as well as a number of category wins and distinctions. For 2018 he received awards for best colour print in show and favourite print on the delegates vote.
He is also proud to have placed first at the Slovakian Museum Photographic Speleo Competion 2018 for Caving Movement and been voted most popular shot in the public vote.
He is the proud recipient of the 2017 Giles Barker Award.
In 2017 his work took on the added dimension of Cave Diving, and he began to specialise in "Beyond the Sump" photography, capturing images of caves that can only be reached by diving through flooded passages with all the photographic equipment - something that very few photographers worldwide have the ability to do.
His photography has been published in numerous books, regional and national newspapers, magazines and journals and he was the first international photographer to have a spotlight feature run in America's NSS News in February 2018 & France's Spelunka magazine in the December 2019 edition.
2019 also saw Mark working with Mallinson Sadler for National Geographics 'Drain The Oceans: Thai Cave Rescue' feature.
For 2020, despite the Covid pandemic, his love of subterranean photography took him to Mulu, Borneo, as Expedition Photographer, where he helped to discover new caves. The annual cave diving project in Croatia for which he was Official Photographer in 2021 was also extremely successful.
2021 also saw him travel to Belize, where he documented unique Mayan artefacts hidden for many years inside secret caves, and in the UK he played a major part in capturing images of the record-breaking Three Counties Traverse Project.
Awards/Publications
Winner of 'Adventure in the Outdoor' and 'People's Choice' awards at the 2017 Kendal Mountain Festival. His first foray in to the world of film, a collaboration documenting cave diving exploration in Croatia 'The Master Cave' premiered in the 2018 Petzl underground session of the Kendal Mountain Film Festival.
He has won the Mendip Cave Photography Competition three years running: 2015, 2016 & 2017.
Twice winner of the UK's prestigious Premier trophy at Hidden Earth as well as a number of category wins and distinctions. For 2018 he received awards for best colour print in show and favourite print on the delegates vote.
He is also proud to have placed first at the Slovakian Museum Photographic Speleo Competion 2018 for Caving Movement and been voted most popular shot in the public vote.
He is the proud recipient of the 2017 Giles Barker Award.
In 2017 his work took on the added dimension of Cave Diving, and he began to specialise in "Beyond the Sump" photography, capturing images of caves that can only be reached by diving through flooded passages with all the photographic equipment - something that very few photographers worldwide have the ability to do.
His photography has been published in numerous books, regional and national newspapers, magazines and journals and he was the first international photographer to have a spotlight feature run in America's NSS News in February 2018 & France's Spelunka magazine in the December 2019 edition.
2019 also saw Mark working with Mallinson Sadler for National Geographics 'Drain The Oceans: Thai Cave Rescue' feature.
For 2020, despite the Covid pandemic, his love of subterranean photography took him to Mulu, Borneo, as Expedition Photographer, where he helped to discover new caves. The annual cave diving project in Croatia for which he was Official Photographer in 2021 was also extremely successful.
2021 also saw him travel to Belize, where he documented unique Mayan artefacts hidden for many years inside secret caves, and in the UK he played a major part in capturing images of the record-breaking Three Counties Traverse Project.