‘NOT HERE. NOT NOW.’ Nassau Club to host an exhibition of a photographer’s views of China’s frontier

A trip in September to remote Xinjiang Province in northwestern China, bordering Tibet, yielded striking images in brilliant color.

By Pat Summers Special Writer
    “Seize the day,” the poet said, and, for good reason, artist Ann Liang Mark has listened.
    Events in her personal life have often placed her at a crossroads, with one fork leading to negativity, even despair, while the other led to determined positivity, involvement and creativity. Her choice was clear, yet even now, she has been known to surprise others with her conviction that “life is good.”
    Ms. Mark’s activity level, which includes extensive travel, writing and art-making on top of her career in corporate communications, probably surprises, too. Pulling much of that together into “Not Here, Not Now,” she’ll show photographs from her most recent trip to her native China at the Nassau Club. The show opens Saturday and runs through Jan. 6.
    Beginning with a stay in Taiwan, where two of her four brothers still live, Ms. Mark went on to Beijing to meet up with a photography group and travel to Xinjiang province, in northwestern China. One resulting image, both startlingly vivid and exotic, shows ornate crimson and gold clothing with feathered and bejeweled headdresses hanging on a diagonal line in front of a beautiful turquoise lake with rows of mountains behind it.
    The backstory’s less glamorous than the clothes: Garments like these hang on lines all around the lake, a tourist attraction. Women can rent them to dress up before having their pictures taken with their boyfriends.
    Born in China in 1945, then raised in Taiwan, Ms. Mark was the only girl among five children. Her father was a two-star general under Chiang Kai-Shek, president of nationalist China, and she remembers early mornings when he worked on his ýPage=017 Column=001 OK,0000.00þ calligraphy.
    She came to the United States after her marriage in 1970. Divorced 10 years later, she settled with her two children, Kari and William, in Lawrence Township, where she has also worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb since 1987 and completed her bachelor’s degree at Rider University.
    The trials of single parenting were not enough; Ms. Mark also looks back on not one, but two bouts with ovarian cancer since 9/11. At times, she felt she was living between medical tests, all too well aware that “the best thing in life is to be normal” — to wake up and go to work; to enjoy the sunshine and a glass of wine . . .
    When she first came here, Ms. Mark noticed people who “knocked on wood” for luck and said “quote-quote” while wagging two fingers on each hand. Now, a bit wryly, she often “knocks on wood” in talking about her past medical experiences and the possibility of future ones. Her acquaintance with medical professionals, with sensitivity or lack of it, is broad.
    Weirdly enough, it was her cancer that led to her coming exhibition at the Nassau Club — talk about clouds with silver linings. The second time around, Ms. Mark’s oncologist was Dr. Peter Yi, and as they became acquainted, he learned about her art.
    In recommending places where her photographs might be exhibited, Dr. Yi included Princeton’s Nassau Club, and it wasn’t long before Ms. Mark met artist Marie Sturken, who curates shows there. Soon afterwards, “Not Here, Not Now” was scheduled — leaving open the possibility of “Here and Now” for some future time, she jokes.
    “Her works are powerful,” Ms. Sturken says, also commenting on Ms. Mark’s professional job of framing her images and blocking out space. She’s glad viewers will have a chance to see something of China “not through Western eyes.”
    Ms. Marks summarizes her multi-faceted art works this way: “Two things in life have intrigued me profoundly: words and pictures.”
    Besides being a visual artist, she’s also a published author. When she was 17, her first story was published in Taiwan’s Central Daily News under a pen name — a reminder that her parents’ generation did not look positively on her artistic efforts.
    Her two-volume novel, “Fish Out of Water” (in Chinese), was published in 2003, in Taiwan. And her Web site includes links to four of her “somewhat autobiographical” stories, originally published in Chinese. All can be read online, in English.
    Although Ms. Mark also draws and has done calligraphy and brush painting, her current passion is photography. It became her medium of choice after her very last college course, in photography, opened up its possibilities to her. When she went digital in 2005, she started out with a Canon 20-D.
    Before one of her big trips, a friend advised her to “get another camera” so she’d have a backup if anything went wrong. And something did: her new camera didn’t work — a problem not resolved till after her return. Luckily, her original camera held out.
    Now Ms. Mark takes photographs wherever she goes — often China, as well as myriad other places whose dramatic landscapes appear on her Web site. She also makes portraits, all outdoors, so she can use natural light. Her photo manipulation is pretty much limited to “some color correction,” she says.
    As a member of the Princeton Photography Club, she was twice represented in group shows at the Montgomery Center for the Arts. She has also shown her work at the West Windsor library and a restaurant in New Hope, Pa.
    Reading “Associate Director, Corporate Affairs, Design Communications,” her business card only suggests Ms. Mark’s role in presentations for company executives and the FDA, and communications support for both the B-MS Web site and its R&D area. Her job involves learning new and complicated things and dealing with varied audiences.
    Balancing her art with her job is not an issue for Ms. Mark. “You always have time for things you want to do,” she says, mentioning in the same breath a recent Sunday hike with friends near Bear Mountain, N.Y. Only days after finishing her last round of chemotherapy in 2005, she left for a cross-country trip.
    Ann Mark’s success seems to spring from her staying peripatetic and positive. That sounds like a plan.
To see a variety of photographs by Ann Mark, visit www.ann- mark.com. Links to her stories are there, too.
“Not Here, Not Now,” an exhibition of Ann Mark’s China photography, in color, will be on view at the Nassau Club, 6 Mercer St., Princeton, Nov. 18-Jan. 6. Hours: daily except during dining hours. Reception: Tuesday, Nov. 20, 5:30-7:30 p.m.