Photographic Memory Mark Krancer: A Life Worth Living
By Kate A. Hallock
Mark Krancer smiles a lot. On a photo assignment, he’ll tell his clients that he’s living the dream, but that wasn’t always the case.
Krancer knows how addiction can put you in a bad place. He also knows how a positive passion can save your life. From drugs to digital camera, Krancer turned his life around 10 years ago to eventually create a successful business and achieve world renown.
Robin Patton proudly claims she discovered Krancer. In 2015, as Memorial Park Association’s publicity chair, Patton began to work on the nonprofit’s website and social media, combing Facebook for images, where she discovered his photos of the park and surrounding areas. “They just captured me. He’s got a great eye, he gets it,” says Patton. “I’ve been collecting art all my life. I knew he was an artist before he did. I wanted everyone else to see his work, too!”
Patton also learned that Krancer was reshaping his life with his job at the Florida Times-Union. The aspiring photographer was once a $500-a-day addict and dealer in the darkest place of his life and, after serving time in prison, in 2014 he started a new life in Jacksonville.
“With over a year of sobriety under my belt and Jesus in my heart, I began building my life again,” says Krancer. He rented a room in Riverside, acquired a bicycle, and began a short commute to the Times-Union. “I couldn’t drive for a couple of years, so I rode my bicycle almost everywhere I went. There were times this was a challenge, but I managed to make it work and adapted my life around it.
“Being along the beautiful St. Johns River at all times of day, I fell in love with photographing the beauty of it and saw how light, particularly sunrise, would transform this place into a really amazing scene,” says Krancer about his new passion.
