Mara’s earliest memories are of traveling with her father to remote Spanish villages in search of popular ballads and songs that were later transcribed for his studies on the Spanish Romancero Her interest in photography was born on these journeys as she learnt about the world through the people she met with her father and their traditions and customs.
Mara moved to New York in 1990 and apprenticed as a dark room technician with Gar Lillard at Lab One while working as a photographer and pursuing her personal projects. In 1995 Mara moved to Chiapas, Mexico where she found work as archivist, restorer and printer in the photography archives of the Na-Bolom Museum in San Cristobal de Las Casas. In 1997 Mara moved back to New York and began to work as a fine printer for *Magnum photos*. In 2000 she set up her own B/W lab in Williamsburg, *Lab2* and began to print for photographers on a freelance bases. In 2007 she expanded her lab to include Studio 304. A studio space that offers photographers and video artist to show case their work on a monthly projection. From 2011 Mara has been a TA at the ICP Community Partnership program and is in continuous collaboration with the Josephine Herrick project and Al-Liqundoi workshops abroad. Mara also continues to expand her outreach working as a documentary photographer, performance art, stills, fine art and traveling to different countries to pursue her own personal projects.
Today she lives in Williamsburg, NY, with her three children Luna, Kidon and Arlo.
