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Remarkable Vision The Extraordinary Life and Work of Mary Ellen Mark If you tried to sum up the photography of Mary Ellen Mark in a single sentence, you might get away with saying that she is adept at capturing both the gravely serious and the amusingly silly in human nature, often with a single image. This is not to say that her photographs are simple to define. Inarguably one of the world's most respected and influential photographers-her list of accolades is far too long to go into here, suffice to say she has won every award, received every grant, and was recently voted by the readers of American Photography as their favorite woman photographer of all time-Mark is celebrated for her ability to create complex emotional texture. She shows us human beings in all their contradictory splendor: laughable and dignified, disturbing and reassuring, pathetic and eternally hopeful. Since her first book of photographs, Passport, appeared more than a quarter-century ago, Mark has given Americans some of our most unforgettable portraits: The Damm family living in their car; the prepubescent Amanda defiantly blowing cigarette smoke into the lens; Tiny and the street children of Seattle. In addition, Mark's images of other cultures-from the prostitutes and circus performers of India to the junkies of London-have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Mark has published eleven books, and her photo-essays and portraits have appeared in such publications as LIFE, The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Vogue, US and the London Sunday Times Magazine. Her most recent project is entitled Mary Ellen Mark: American Odyssey. A book and traveling exhibition, it features photographs from the United States taken over the past 35 years. The exhibit will be traveling to Philadelphia, New York City, San Francisco and Fort Wayne, Indiana. The following digital photo gallery of Mary Ellen Mark's work briefly touches on many of her themes. To see more, visit Mary Ellen Mark's Web site at www.maryellenmark.com |