Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark and Martin Bell (2011)

Mary Ellen Mark (born March 20, 1940 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , † May 25, 2015 in New York City , New York ) was an American photojournalist and a member of the Magnum Photos photo agency .

Life

Mark studied art and art history at the University of Pennsylvania from 1958 to 1962 . In 1963 she started taking photos. She made her bachelor's degree in photojournalism in 1964 . From 1966 she worked as a freelance photographer with a focus on socially critical issues , supported by a grant . Trips to India and Turkey follow .

She led numerous photography workshops in the 1970s and received a grant from the United States Information Agency in 1975 . In 1976 she was invited to join Magnum Photos , and in 1977 she became a full member of the agency. She left Magnum in 1981 to pursue her own projects. From 1983 she also worked as a sports journalist.

Mary Ellen Mark was married to director Martin Bell . She died on May 25, 2015 at the age of 75 in Manhattan, New York, of complications from myelodysplastic syndrome .

plant

Mary Ellen Mark has received numerous awards for her work. Her focus was on human issues and the humanistic concern of delivering reports on fringe groups in a clear, direct visual language . She rejected the "sensational" photojournalism and avoided pretentious visual language. The photographer did not want to hurt the dignity of the people in the picture; so z. For example, in her subtle photo series about Indian prostitutes (in collaboration with Mother Teresa ) as well as in her reports on the unemployed , disabled , homeless , junkies or children who have to live in poverty in the Bronx .

Mark's works live from their composition, which was implemented with perfect technology. Mark thus joined the long gallery of socially critical photographers such as Dorothea Lange , Walker Evans and W. Eugene Smith and always discreetly put her “photographic finger” into the wound of society.

In 1994, Mary Ellen Mark received the Erich Salomon Prize of the German Society for Photography (DGPh) for her work .

Publications

• Passport . New York: Lustrum Press , 1974. ISBN 9780912810140 .
• Photojournalism: Mary Ellen Mark and Annie Leibovitz: The Woman's Perspective. Petersons, 1974. ISBN 0822700697 .
• Ward 81 . New York: Simon & Schuster , 1979. ISBN 9780671245450 . Text by Karen Folger Jacobs, introduction by Miloš Forman .
  • New edition Bologna: Damiani, 2008. ISBN 978-8862080552 .
• Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay: Photographs and Text . New York: Knopf , 1981. ISBN 9780394509877 .
  • New edition Göttingen: Steidl Verlag , 2005
• Photographs of Mother Teresa's Mission of Charity in Calcutta . Carmel-by-the-Sea : Friends of Photography, 1985. ISBN 9780933286436 . Introduction by David Featherston.
• Streetwise .
  • Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania , 1988. ISBN 9780812212686 . Text by Nancy Baker, introduction by John Irving .
  • Second edition. New York: Aperture , 1992. ISBN 9780893814878 .
• The Photo Essay . Photographers at Work series. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990. ISBN 978-1-560980-03-2 .
• Mary Ellen Mark: 25 Years . New York: Bulfinch, 1991. ISBN 9780821218372 . Text by Marianne Fulton.
• Indian Circus . San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993, and Japan: Takarajimasha, 1993. ISBN 9780811805315 . Foreword by John Irving.
• Portraits .
  • Milan: Federico Motta, 1995. ISBN 8871790758 .
  • Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1997. ISBN 9781560987208 . Foreword by Mary Panzer.
• A Cry for Help: Stories of Homelessness and Hope . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. ISBN 9780684825939 . Introduction by Andrew Cuomo , foreword by Robert Coles, interviews by Victoria Kohn.
• Mary Ellen Mark: American Odyssey . New York: Aperture, 1999. ISBN 978-0-893-81880-7 . Texts by Melissa Harris, poem by Maya Angelou, afterword by Mark.
• Mary Ellen Mark 55 . Released as part of the Phaidon 55 series. London: Phaidon , 2001. ISBN 978-0-714-84617-0 .
• Mary Ellen Mark . Published as part of the Photo Poche series. Paris: Nathan, 2002.
• Twins . New York: Aperture, 2003. ISBN 9781931788199 .
  • New edition Göttingen: Steidl, 2003, ISBN 978-1931788199 (English).
• Exposure: Mary Ellen Mark: The Iconic Photographs . London: Phaidon, 2005. Hardback, 2005. ISBN 9780714844046 . Paperback, 2006. ISBN 9780714846262 . Retrospective. Introductions by Weston Naef and Mark
• Undrabörn: Extraordinary Child. Reykjavík: National Museum of Iceland , 2007. ISBN 9789979790143 . Foreword by Margaret Hallgrimsdottir, introduction by Mark, article by Einar Falur Ingólfsson. Exhibition catalog.
• Seen behind the scene . London: Phaidon, 2008. ISBN 9780714848471 . Introduction by Mark, "A World Behind the Scene" and texts by Francis Ford Coppola , Helen Mirren , Alejandro González Iñárritu and others. Portraits of filmmakers created on film sets.
  • Uno sguardo dietro le quinte. Quarant'anni di fotografie sui set cinematografici. Phaidon, 2009. ISBN 978-0714857121 .
• Prom (incl. DVD with Martin Bell's film of the same name). Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum , 2012. ISBN 9781606061084 . Photographs of celebrities in the United States.
• Man and Beast: Photographs from Mexico and India. Austin: University of Texas , 2014. ISBN 978-0-292-75611-3 . With an interview with Mark by Melissa Harris.
• Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and the Moment. The Photography Workshop Series. New York: Aperture, 2015. ISBN 978-1-59711-316-8 .
• Tiny: Streetwise Revisited . New York: Aperture, 2015. ISBN 978-1-59711-262-8 . With afterword by Mark, prologue by Isabel Allende and text by John Irving.

Lexical entry

• Hans-Michael Koetzle: Photographers AZ . Taschen Germany, 2015 ISBN 978-3-8365-1107-0

Web links

• Mary Ellen Mark on photography-now.com
• Literature by and about Mary Ellen Mark in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Mary Ellen Mark  in the German Digital Library
• Search for Mary Ellen Mark in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Mary Ellen Mark in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Grimes: Mary Ellen Mark, Photographer Who Documented Difficult Subjects, Dies at 75. In: The New York Times . May 26, 2015, accessed May 26, 2015.