Mario Griffin Photography

Mario Griffin… an alias? Yes and no. It is me. I was born a Gryvenstein (German surname meaning “Griffin’s Castle”) and I was given the name Marius by my adoptive parents. Marius is the old Latin version of the modern italian name Mario, thus Mario Griffin was born.

I love my wife, my children, my dogs and my snake… Being with them gives me peace, a goal and a will to be the best I can be. Coffee keeps me awake. Beer gets me chilled. My mountain bike keeps me fit. Friends keep a smile on my face.

Beauty is what drives me. Or more to the point, the search for beauty. Beauty can be found in the most mundane environments or places others would rather avoid. Everybody’s idea of beauty differs. The engineer might find beauty in the design of a set of gears driving a clock, the artist might find it in the wrinkled lines on an old man’s face. Beauty can be found everywhere and in everything – if only you desire to find it. That search, that desire is what drives me as a photographer.

Thus my creative process is inspired by what I see around me. Creativity then turns what I see into a vision, something seen by my ‘minds eye’. Experience and technical ability then allows me to use the tools at hand to capture the vision of beauty to deliver the final photo. The image. The holy grail I am searching for every time I click the shutter.