MARK at 16 behind his already substantial collection of camera gear (a self-portrait taken for his school yearbook and kindly provided to us by Phil Katsikas)
ORIGINS: A TRIBUTE TO MARK BENNETT (continued)
Our house was always the one where all the kids would gather. Mark had the first Apple computer in the neighbourhood and it wasn’t unusual for mom to wake up in the morning and find random teenagers asleep on the sofa, after late nights at the computer.
As Mark pushed through his school years, his love of photography grew. Our dad presented him one day with his first film camera, and it did not take long to convince mom she should convert her basement cold room into a darkroom where Mark could develop and print all his own pictures.
On warm days, the scent of darkroom chemicals would waft through the house as he spent hours developing and printing and creating his work. A makeshift clothesline in the basement was always strewn with photos.
When he was 12, Mark developed mononucleosis (glandular fever). In looking back over that time, I recall that while he was bedbound for many days, there always seemed to be a female friend at his side.
Mark, very much admired by the girls he knew, seemed to be comfortable with the platonic relationships he found in them. A protective soul, Mark always looked out for the vulnerable, the underdogs.
I remember one night when he defied Mom and Dad who had told him to stay home and study. Instead, he left to take the “new girl in town” for a tour around Hudson. To Mark, it was more important that the emotional needs of a lonely newbie were met, than to stay home and prepare for a school test.
And for Mark, his respect for women throughout his life certainly paid off in the form of true friendships that lasted for years, right up to the moment when his physical life ended.
Unlike many teenage boys, Mark never hesitated to strike up a conversation with a girl; he was wired with self-confidence but never cocky.
Mark had one true love in his life, and when they parted ways, he confided to me, in his uniquely matter-of-fact way, that he felt lucky to have known love and would simply continue his life as a single man. They remained friends to the end.
Mark was very trusting in people. A little too trusting the day he was swinging out over a hill from a rope tied to a tree in his friend’s front yard. As he swung, one of them decided to toss him his sweater.
While it may have been meant as a harmless prank, it did not turn out as such. For the next six weeks Mark would sport two casts, one on each arm. Having let go of the rope in mid-air to catch the sweater, he landed at the bottom of the hill on both wrists.
1978: Mark, with wrists in plaster after a fall, celebrates his 13th birthday with Robin
To add insult to injury this happened on his 13th birthday — his first day of high school. Nonetheless, Mark’s female followers were always near enough to give a hand carrying his books, help him with his lunch, and do whatever they thought he needed to make his life easier.
Sometime in his late teens — I don’t remember the exact years — two movies were filmed in our little town of Hudson. The first was Happy Birthday To Me, followed by Hotel Pennsylvania.
I recall his excitement around having the film crews on our street. He had the opportunity to meet actors and actresses like Melissa Sue Anderson, Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster and others from the movies’ casts.
He may even have been an extra in one of the movie shoots, but sadly, ended up on the cutting room floor. While no credits were ever given, I also recall he was allowed to help the lighting crew at one point.
My mother remembers him coming home in period costume, but our memories aren’t as sharp as they used to be.
Mark got his first summer job working at Finnegan’s Flea Market, hired to do things like cutting the grass and setting up tables. Widely known and attracting people from miles away, Finnegan’s exposed him to many eccentric people.
Regrettably, it has announced it will permanently close this year, after more than 50 years in business [link].
Mark met many people at the market and took an interest in their collections of oddities and rare possessions. After touring Sunday markets in England with Mark one year, I could not help but remember the pleasure he got from working at Finnegan’s and often wondered if his memories were with him when boot-shopping in England.
Having been a home economics teacher, our mother had a real passion for food and cooking. I dare say she was a foodie before that was even a thing. Sally started the first natural food co-op in Montreal in the early 1980s.
Our mother was the same, always thinking of a little token to give someone, just to spread the joy. One of the sweetest things Mark’s close friend Jules Foreman told me recently was that her daughter referred to him as ‘Magic Mark Bennett’. What a legacy to leave.
To honour that legacy, a limited number of re-usable cotton shopping bags containing random items from his life and embroidered with two of his favorite phrases will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis at the upcoming Memorial Event for him in Brighton (details below).
Mark was never a materialistic person but was resourceful with his freelancing and journalism. Living day-to-day, he never seemed to dwell on income; he never worried about where the money was going to come from tomorrow.
He was lucky in that he always had a plan, a stream of income from one source or another, someone to buy something he had, another article to write or a photo shoot to earn from.
There were people to whom he would sell items or provide services who never paid him. But he never thought poorly of those who took advantage of his kindness. Instead, he would put it down to hardships on their own part.
Mark always saw the good in people. He was also a masker.
When Mark was in pain, be it physical or emotional, he could not express himself the way most people could. He did something called ‘masking’, another indication of his neurodivergent diagnoses.
From time to time, I have heard people refer to Mark as ‘misunderstood’. We understood him to be eccentric and inquisitive, curious and so smart. As a teenager, he scored an IQ of genius level.
When Mark left the nest and moved to Verdun (in Montreal) to attend University, none of us knew that this would be the beginning of the closing of his life in Canada as he knew it.
After graduating from Hudson High School in 1984, he attended John Abbott College (CEGEP) where he obtained his Social Sciences Degree. He then took a year of Fine Arts after which he was invited by his friend David and wife Rosalie to join them in England for work.
He stayed in England for a year and a half and returned to Montreal to complete an Applied Arts Degree, having majored in Photography.
His thirst for journalism and photography drew him in, and the story of his adult life in the UK is taken up in this article by other contributors who became part of what he would come to call his ‘English family’.
The last few years of Mark’s life were difficult. He suffered heart attacks, strokes and CKD (chronic kidney disease), but still kept his spirits up and fought to the very end.
When he was hospitalised with covid in March 2020, he suffered a pulmonary embolism. His family at home in Canada felt powerless and devastated.
We desperately wanted to visit him, but the restrictions in force at the time made it impossible.
The news that he had died in his flat in Hove left us all in shock, feeling empty and without closure. The coroner, following Mark’s autopsy, concluded the left ventricle of his heart simply could not pump any longer.
We were assured that he died peacefully and would have felt no pain. He didn’t have a heart attack, but simply heart failure.
Mark had e-mailed me the day he died to tell me he was looking forward to my visit in May. Tearfully, my visit now will be to host his memorial. He was taken way too young, but he has no more pain.
On behalf of the family of Mark Bennett, I want to extend our gratitude and love to all of you who were so important in his life and showed him friendship and grace.
‘People referred to Mark as “misunderstood”. We understood him to be eccentric, inquisitive, curious and so smart. As a teenager, he scored an IQ of genius level’
MARK BENNETT (D’Arcy Mark Bennett) September 1965–November 2021
Mark was pre-deceased by his father Neil (d. 2000), as well as by his paternal grandparents Edith and D’Arcy, maternal grandparents Freda and Eric, and his nephew Christopher.
He is survived by his mother Sally (on Prince Edward Island, aka PEI, on Canada’s east coast); me, his sister Robin; his nephew Brandon (Emie) and their children Isaiah, Isabel, and Benjamin; his aunt Joanne (and five cousins); and his uncle Bill (and two cousins) all in Nova Scotia.
BRIGHTON MEMORIAL EVENTS scheduled for Sunday May 29 afternoon/evening
On Sunday May 29, Mark Bennett’s life will be celebrated in Brighton, not just at the evening memorial but also at a special ceremony in the afternoon when his ashes will be scattered.
Following the ceremony, I hope you will come and share your memories, at the Latest Music Bar in Brighton. Doors open at 6pm with presentations from 7pm to 11pm. Admission is by free ticket from Brighton Fringe link below and the event will also be live-streamed.
Brighton Fringe: Mark Bennett – Spy From The Future
Mark Bennet Memorial Facebook Group
MORE TRIBUTES… CHARLOTTE TG: MD, Torture Garden
TORTURE GARDEN managing director Charlotte DJ-ing at Edinburgh Caves (photo: @picturesinblood)
WE AT TORTURE GARDEN were incredibly sad to hear about Mark’s passing. He was an institution on the scene for years, and then, when he stopped going out, a regular poster on social media, with some pretty unique views and areas of interest!
For years Mark was an ever-present face at Torture Garden nights. When I started working there over 20 years ago, he was already a well-established fixture.
After each party he would post in a CD of his images from the night, including his train tickets from Brighton to London to be reimbursed.
There is definitely a long period of TG’s history where Mark was probably the only photographer that was there for each night.
His work remains a big part of our archive and really synonymous with a specific time in the history of the London fetish scene.
For me some of his most iconic shots of the club include the House of Harlot fashion show featuring Dita, eGarbs fashion at Brixton academy, Ron Athey’s performance at Ministry of Sound and our Animal Love Valentines party at Mass. I think of his images when I think of those nights (see gallery below).
I first encountered Mark in person when I worked in Soho fetish store Paradiso. He would come in with copies of his magazine, Black Ice, and talk us (extensively!!) through the different articles.
So when I started to see him at TG I was forewarned and forearmed to avoid asking about certain favourite subjects of his, if I had work to get done. ‘Passionate’ would be an understatement when it came to those areas!!
As years passed he was increasingly interested in 3D imagery and would post us slides — Dita Von Teese, Katie Ray and Lucifire were favourites of his — along with various viewers to look at them through, and ever-evolving ideas about how best to use this huge 3D catalogue that never ended with a finished plan.
He’d post us films that he thought we might like, and sweets at Christmas. And he gave me a pyramid made of orgonite, a substance he believed would cure all ills; he was always looking to out-science medical research with his own work!
The last time we saw him was when he came to the TG office six or seven years ago with Michelle Olley, who was there to help him get his ideas across. He had a huge archive of imagery from the club that we have never seen, and that was uncategorised, unused, and waiting for him to organise.
Initially he thought the best way around this would be to come and shoot more events, but we talked him out of this, saying that adding to the volume of photos to sort was never going to help.
BELOW: Gallery of some of Charlotte TG’s favourite Torture Garden photographs by Mark Bennett
CLICK OR TAP on any thumbnail below to open the gallery and start the slideshow
‘Mark’s work remains a big part of our archive and really synonymous with a specific time in the history of the London fetish scene’ – Charlotte TG
More Mark Bennett tributes from fetish friends and other admirers on next page!
Tags: Innovators, Personalities, Photographers, Tributes
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