Mary Ellen Mark is an American photographer, known for her images which fall between social photojournalism and portraiture.
She was born March 20, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mark began photographing with a Box Brownie camera at age nine. During high school, she was head cheerleader with a knack for painting and drawing.
Mark’s photography has addressed difficult social issues, including homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction and prostitution. She works primarily in black and white and has contributed to publications including LIFE magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.
Mary Ellen Mark has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. For over four decades, she has traveled extensively to make photographs that reflect a high degree of humanism. Today, she is recognized as one of our most respected and influential photographers. Her images of our world’s diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography.
In my opinion Mary Ellen Mark is an inspirational female photographer. Her work is never over done or loud, but rather simple and speaks for itself.
While looking through work by Mark, I noticed an extremely wide variety of photographs; pictures with an editorial/journalist feel, photos of celebrities, still life images of nature. It is obvious that her specialty is in capturing different aspects of extreme social issues, but it was interesting to see that she does sometimes step outside of those boundaries.
The only thing I was not too fond of was that the majority of Marks photos were in black and white. I, personally, do appreciate a black and white photo, but every once in a while it’s nice to see some color.
To see more on Mary Ellen Mark visit these links: Link 1, Link2, Link 3.
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