Working in the mail room and loading film for Ray Manley, a landscape photographer in Tucson, Arizona, was Mark Fina's first contact with professional photography. He received his Bachelor degree of Fine Art from University of Arizona and later graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he honed his art direction skills and photography experience. Photography was always present in Mark's advertising career, starting in New York with accounts like Fendi, Fidelity Investments and Nathans Famous. But as he gained experience on Revlon, Charles of the Ritz and Ultima the Nakeds, he found his true calling in the category where visual aesthetic is crucial: Beauty.

Training his eye by carefully watching the shoots of several talented photographers such as Horst P. Horst, Patrick Demarchelier, Kurt Markus and Michael Thompson, he also sharpened his sensitivity to the pictorial frame by editing the great images of Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Steven Meisel. The cumulative knowledge from all these photographers becomes crystal clear one day when Arthur Elgort showed him how to use his new Leica M6. Trying to absorb the wealth of Arthur's knowledge has been an ongoing study over many years and many bottles of wine.