Mary Ellen's passport photo Mary Ellen Mark, photographer, born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US 20 March 1940; died New York City, New York25 May 2015.
She died aged 75 after suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease that affects bone marrow and blood, was one of the great documentary photographers of recent times.
“I think photography is closest to writing, not painting,” she once said, “because you are using this machine to convey an idea.” She described her approach to her subjects: "I’ve always felt that children and teenagers are not "children," they’re small people. I look at them as little people and I either like them or I don’t like them. I also have an obsession with mental illness. And strange people who are outside the borders of society." Mark also said, "I’d rather pull up things from another culture that are universal, that we can all relate to….There are prostitutes all over the world. I try to show their way of life…" and that "I feel 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".
In 2014, Mark was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Photography by the World Photography Organization at the Sony photography awards in London and lifetime achievement award from George Eastman House in New York. “I care about people and that’s why I became a photographer,” she once said. Her empathy showed through in all her work.
Her husband Martin Bell (born January 16, 1943) the American film director best known for such films as Streetwise and American Heart survives her.
Mavi Boncuk |
Mark was born and raised in Elkins Park in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began photographing with a Box Brownie camera at age nine. She attended Cheltenham High School, where she was head cheerleader and exhibited a knack for painting and drawing. She received a BFA degree in painting and art history from the University of Pennsylvania, in 1962. After graduating she worked briefly in the Philadelphia city planning department before returning for a Masters Degree in photojournalism at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, which she received in 1964. The following year, Mark received a Fulbright Scholarship to photograph in Turkey for a year, from which she produced her first book, Passport (1974)[1]. While there, she also traveled to photograph England, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Spain.
[1] Passport. New York: Lustrum Press, 1974. ISBN 9780912810140.
Mary Ellen Mark's first published book featuring a collection of early photographic work from 1963 to 1973.
Street Child, Trabzon, Turkey, 1965
Turkish Immigrants, Istanbul, Turkey, 1965
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