( march, 20, 1940 Philadelphia, USA — may, 25, 2015, NYC, USA )

Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer known for her work in photojournalism, portraiture, and advertising photography. He has published 16 collections of and exhibited in galleries and museums around the world. He has received numerous awards, including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three National Endowment for the Arts scholarships .

He started photographing with a Box Brownie camera at age nine. She attended Cheltenham High School , where she was a principal entertainer and exhibited a gift for paint and draw. He received a BFA degree in painting and art history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, and a master’s degree in photojournalism from that university’s Annenberg School for Communication in 1964. The following year, Mark received a Fulbright scholarship to photograph in Turkey during one year. While there, he also traveled to photograph England, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain.

In 1966 or 1967, she moved to New York City, where during the following years she photographed the demonstrations of the Vietnam War, the women’s liberation movement, the transvestite culture and Times Square, developing a sensitivity, According to one writer, “away from the dominant society and towards its most interesting, often problematic strips”.

As she explained in 1987, “I’m just interested in people on the edge. I have an affinity for people who haven’t had the best breaks in society. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence.” Its film style ranges from a 2 ¼ inch, 35mm format to a 4×5 inch view camera. It also uses a Leica 4 for most Nikon photography and cameras for long-distance shooting. She loved shooting with a Hasselblad for square format and mainly black and white, using the classic Kodak Tri-X film.

Photographic career

He became a team photographer on film sets, filming production footage for films including Arthur Penn’s Alice’s Restaurant (1969), Mike Nichols’ Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola (1979) among others. For Look magazine, he photographed Federico Fellini filming his movie Satyricon (1969). Since then, he has photographed on the sets of more than 100 films, at least through Australia by director Baz Luhrmann (2008). She established strong relationships with her subjects, having spoken after her experiences at the Home for the Dying in Calcutta, and her “Street Kids” project for LIFE magazine, which became the Streetwise movie >.

She worked with Magazines like Life, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker y Vanity Fair. Hasta 2012, publicó 17 libros, incluidos Passport (Lustrum Press, 1974), Ward 81 (Simon & Schuster, 1979), Falkland Road (Knopf, 1981), Misión de la Caridad de la Madre Teresa en Calcuta (Friends of Photography, 1985) , Streetwise (segunda impresión, Aperture, 1992), Mary Ellen Mark: 25 años (Bulfinch, 1991), Indian Circus (Chronicle Books, 1993, y Takarajimasha, 1993), Portraits (Motta Fotografica, 1995 y Smithsonian, 1997), A Cry for Help (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Mary Ellen Mark: American Odyssey (Aperture, 1999), Mary Ellen Mark 55 (Phaidon Press, 2001), Photo Poche: Mary Ellen Mark (Nathan, 2002), Twins (Aperture, 2003), Mary Ellen Mark: Exposure (Phaidon Press, 2005), Extraordinary Child (Museo Nacional de Islandia, 2007), Visto detrás de escena (Phaidon Press, 2008) y Prom.

Film career

In 1992, she became a writer, associate producer, and still photographer for the feature film American Heart , starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong. The film was directed by her husband Martin Bell.

Style

His photography has addressed social issues such as homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction and prostitution. He worked mainly in black and white. He described his approach to his subjects this way: “I have always felt that children and adolescents are not ‘children’, they are little people. I see them as little people and I like or dislike them. I also have an obsession with mental illness. And with strange people who are outside the borders of society. ” Mark has also said: “I prefer to extract things from another culture that are universal, with which we can all relate … There are prostitutes all over the world. I try to show their way of life …”

Awards

1980 First Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, “Mother Teresa”, Life
1980 Page One Award for Excellence in Journalism, The Newspaper Guild of New York, “Children of Desire”, The New York Times Magazine
1981 First Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, “Mother Teresa in Calcutta”, Life Magazine
1982 Leica Medal of Excellence, Falkland Road
1984 First Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, “Camp Good Times”, Life
1986 The Phillipe Halsman Award for Photojournalism, American Society of Magazine Photographers
1987 Photographer of the Year Award, The Friends of Photography
1988 World Press Photo Award, for Outstanding Body of Work Throughout the Years
1988 George Polk Award, Photojournalism
1988 Distinguished Photographer’s Award, Women in Photography
1989 The World Hunger Media Awards, Best Photojournalism, “Children of Poverty”, Life
1990 Pictures of the Year Award for Magazine Portrait/Personality, “The Face of Rural Poverty”, Fortune Magazine
1992 Society of Newspaper Design, Award of Excellence, Magazine Cover and Photojournalism Feature, The New York Times Magazine
1993 Front Page Award, The Newswomen’s Club of New York, “Cree Indians” for Condé Nast Traveler, November 10, 1993
1994 The Professional Photographer of the Year Award, Photographic Manufacturers and Distributors Association
1995 Pictures of the Year, 1st Place Magazine Division, “Napping” Freelance/Life
1996 Pictures of the Year, 1st Place Magazine Division, for issue reporting “Damm Family”; 3rd place in Magazine division for picture essay
1996 Master Series Award, School of Visual Arts
1997 Infinity Award, International Center of Photography
1998 The Art Directors Club Silver Award, “El Circo”
1998 The Society of Publication Designers, Gold Medal Award for Design Entire Issue, “Battle of the Generations”, Fast Company
1999 Leadership Award, International Photographic Council
1999 Photographic Administrators Incorporated, Award for Excellence in Photojournalism
2001 Cornell Capa Award, International Center of Photography
2003 Lucie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Photography
2004 World Press Photo Awards, First Prize in the Arts (Twins series)
2006 Visionary Woman Award, Moore College of Art & Design