Mark de Paola's earliest memory is sitting on the floor of his father's photographic studios in Los Angeles and New York, watching photoshoots and immersing himself in the fashion books and periodicals of the time. Mark's visual foundation is anchored in the works of his father Alessio de Paola, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Bert Stern and Art Kane.

Alessio de Paola did not hesitate to put his son Mark behind a camera, teaching him the basics with an 8x10 view camera. Eventually, Mark had earned his way toward the more portable and streamlined Leica M3 with which he photographed young hippies at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park during weekends.

Mark received his first assignment in his twenties: a magazine cover shoot of actor Henry Fonda. His career then took off with countless campaign shoots, editorials and covers for various publications, including Vogue Mexico and Vogue Spain. Eventually his storytelling translated to motion and television work and he went on to direct and shoot several hundred spots for Anheuser-Busch, Ducati, Donna Karan, Giorgio Perfume (exhibited in MoMA New York), Gucci, Ford, and Sony among many others.

Exhibitions include 60 Seconds, a series of nudes shot with handheld 60 second expo-sures, exhibited at Leica Gallery Los Angeles, Boston, Tokyo, and San Francisco, as well as Art of Backstage exhibited in China, Leica Gallery Ginza Six in Tokyo, and New York City.

Mark is a frequent lecturer at many educational institutions and venues including a recent talk with Alessia Glaviano, Senior Photo Editor at Vogue Italia, and masterclasses with the New York Film Academy and the Leica Akademie worldwide.