Marc Schenker lives in Northern California and Tepoztlan, Mexico. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritusr at the University of California at Davis . His university work focuses on migration and health, occupational and environmental health, pulmonary disease, and global health research and teaching.

His international health work provides him with diverse opportunities for photographing people and cultures around the world. He is particularly interested in how people reflect their unique cultures, climate and geography around the world, and how they also show universal themes such as family, work, humor, leisure and personal relationships. Some of these themes in his work include mother-daughter relationships, children playing and relating to adults, food,  music, work and public art.

His photographs on work are a direct outgrowth of his research on occupational health hazards in the workplace. This is particularly true for his photographs of agricultural workers, an area in which he has published numerous scientific papers. Some of his photography focuses on commonalities in physical objects across cultures of the world. This is the case for his bicycle photographs, which show the universal bicycle decorated and utilized by people in diverse cultures around the world. He has most recently focused on his adopted town of Tepoztlan, Mexico, documenting the murals of the town.