Mark Noke is a Melbourne-based photographer, musician and writer, who played the lead role of Jesus Christ in a nativity play when he was three years old, with the explicit stage directions that he was to just lay in the bassinet, don't move and don't say anything. He fell asleep during the performance, for which his father rewarded him with fish and chips on the way home.

He also earnt his firelighters badge in cubs, and in 2002 earnt his credential for walking the thousand miles of The Way of Saint James, from LePuy in France to Santiago in Spain.

Mark has been described as a hippie who never turned on, tuned in or dropped out, although he is extraordinarily fond of Jack Daniels, red wine, the writings of Tom Robbins, Homer and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the music of Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Dirty Three. In his head, he's never been much more than nineteen years old. The hippies got it wrong anyway, they should have turned on, tuned in, and then taken over.

He was given his first camera in his early teens, a gift from his maternal grandparents, the joy in which should have found it's expression in professional photography early on but he became a teacher instead, specializing in ancient history, mythology and creative writing. The red wine sustains his dream of living in Paris, in an apartment overlooking the Seine.

Mark can be contacted by email here ..