Mark Scheflen is an acclaimed photographer, visual artist, educator, and humanitarian entrepreneur whose multidisciplinary practice bridges cultural storytelling with environmental advocacy. Raised on a working farm, his early life fostered a deep connection to natural rhythms. He later studied Anthropology at the State University of New York, an academic foundation that instills the ethnographic sensitivity, cultural respect, and social awareness defining his work today.

 

Over several decades, Scheflen has traveled extensively throughout Africa, living and working for extended periods in Kenya. Driven by the belief that art can drive positive change, he founded the international nonprofit Kiboko Projects in 1999. Serving as Artistic Director, he has integrated arts into school curricula by teaching at primary and secondary schools across local Kenyan communities. In parallel, he has partnered with community clinics and self-help groups to support vital public health education and combat HIV/AIDS stigma. Under his leadership, Kiboko Projects expanded its collaborative art, education, and cross-cultural exchange programs globally, linking youth across the United States, Africa, and Russia.

 

A central element of this global outreach is Scheflen’s specialized mask-making workshops, which help participants navigate identity, trauma, and societal healing. In post-apartheid South Africa, his creative programs provided a transformative platform for youth and adults to process historical divisions. He similarly expanded this work to St. Petersburg, Russia, orchestrating intercultural initiatives like the “My Life… My City” and “Faces of Youth” exhibitions at major institutions such as the Herzen Pedagogical University. These workshops allowed young Russian artists to craft personalized masks and photo diaries, creating a vibrant cross-cultural bridge that connected their personal narratives with peers in the U.S. and Africa.

 

Scheflen’s broader artistic practice encompasses fine art landscapes, portraiture, illuminated lightboxes, and documentary photography. Alongside these community initiatives, he has developed a distinguished body of wildlife and avian photography. His images capture the fragile beauty of species and habitats ranging from unexpected urban sanctuaries like New York City’s Central Park to the major wilderness ecosystems of East Africa. A cornerstone of his portfolio includes extensive field tracking documenting the rich diversity of birds and mammals across Kenya and Uganda, capturing specialized species in critical biodiversity hotspots from savannas to southwest montane lakes and forests. Ultimately, his art serves as an invitation to engage thoughtfully and participate actively in protecting the cultural and natural heritage of a rapidly changing planet.