Photographer Marc Karzen is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of these images. From the project ‘Los Angeles: Triangulation’. To see Marc’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Los Angeles: Triangulation

Beyond the geometric intricacies lies the unspoken dialogue between subjects, a silent exchange of emotions and energies transcends the confines of the frame. Each gesture, each glance — becomes a magnet in the narrative, weaving a tapestry of connections and contrasts. In the landscape, visual triangulations unfold as a meditation on the interplay of elements.

MARC KARZEN was born in Paris and raised between Louisville KY and Los Angeles. Karzen’s photographic career grew out of Kodachrome freestyle, straight environmental social reportage, magazine fashion photography, music portraiture — and into the unique area of on-air photography for television. 

Karzen has shot for European publications including Harpers & Queen, Depeche Mode, Company, 20ans, Marie France, Votre Beauté, Marie Claire — until moving back to the states. In NYC, he shot for Rolling Stone, Glamour, GQ, Mademoiselle, WWD, Seventeen, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, international syndication with Outline Press Images and Gamma Liaison — plus shoots for ad agencies and record labels. In television, Karzen shot for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with David Letterman, he has won awards and has shown in gallery exhibitions.

Karzen’s photographs show his passion for order and space through use of powerful colors, textures and design. The Italian photo art review, Il Fotografo, stated, “From Karzen's images, the strong colors spread on wide surfaces distributed with a rigorous graphic equilibrium, broken at times by a point of attention, a face or unpredicted object, one notices a cultural background where modern painting and cinematography merge. There are bodies, architecture, and urban landscapes dominated by bright, sometimes violent light, which is almost that of the sun.” As the elements of his training can easily be seen in his bold, rich lines of color and forms that inhabit his work. Karzen has said, “My images succeed only when the strength of form surpasses subject, by defining the relationship of shape to color”.

In New York in the ‘80s, Marc was asked at a moment’s notice, to shoot photo-animated stills of the SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE logo written in wet cement in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza for the SNL main title sequence. This led to 12 seasons shooting interstitial photographs used on-air for segment establishing shots, interstitials, faux-commercials, set backgrounds and props. 

His educational background moved across mediums — from photography at Santa Monica College with 4x5 and the zone system, to architecture and graphic design at the University of Louisville — to art history at the Sorbonne. In Los Angeles, Karzen studied, and then taught workshops for The American Film Institute and studied screenwriting at UCLA Extensions. Currently, Karzen is a regular speaker at university film schools. 

Karzen's LATE NIGHT work was nominated for the Emmy (Graphic Design and Title Sequences), contributed to 5 Emmy awards, 30+ Emmy nominations, Broadcast Designers Association-Gold, the Art Directors Club of NY, NY International Film & Television Awards, Cannes International Advertising Festival and Chicago Film Festival. Also, Marc is the father of photographer Kit Karzen.

All images and text © Marc Karzen