Mary Ellen Mark

Photographed in 1976, Ward 81 was Mary Ellen Mark’s (1940–2015) first independent long-term project. Mark and writer Karen Folger Jacobs (born 1940) set out to document the lives of the women in this locked ward at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem—the only one in the state. Every day for five weeks, Mark photographed and Jacobs interviewed the women on Ward 81. At night they slept in an empty adjacent ward.
Ward 81: Voices, an expanded edition of the original 1979 book, includes previously unpublished photographs, excerpts from interviews with patients and recorded conversations between Mark and Jacobs, as well as new essays examining the influence of their project. Ward 81 has always been considered one of the best examples of Mark’s ability to portray subjects living on the edges of society with compassion. The inclusion of the women’s voices gives invaluable insight, not only into the lives of the patients, but also into Mark and Jacobs’ experiences and the challenges they faced during their collaboration.

On her very first trip to India in 1968, American photographer Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) visited Falkland Road, the notorious red-light area in Bombay (now Mumbai). She tried to photograph its inhabitants, yet was consistently met with hostility and aggression, both from the prostitutes she sought to portray and the men who were their customers. Resilient, she returned in October 1978 after 10 years of trying to photograph the area, this time sponsored by a magazine. She slowly began to make friends and finally entered the daily lives of these “very special” women. “I had no idea if I could do this,” Mark recalls in her introduction, “but I knew I had to try.” Her portraits of Falkland Road’s denizens are beautiful and shocking: remarkable for their intimate compositions, visceral color and emotional power. Her accompanying captions introduce her subjects and their stories, their daily lives and the profound bonds they share with one another. Mark herself describes this series as “one of the most powerful and rewarding experiences of my photographic life.” Falkland Road has long been recognized as one of Mark’s major bodies of work. It was initially published in 1981 and again in a 2005 Steidl edition with additional photos. Including Mark’s original introduction and captions as well the new photos of the 2005 book, this latest edition—with a revised sequence, and printed from scans of the original 35mm Kodachromes—is the truest expression of her insight into this raw world, made accessible by the intensity of her involvement and compassion.

The images of American photographer Mary Ellen Mark are icons of documentary and humanistic photography. Focusing her camera on the socially disadvantaged and those on the fringes of society, she told the stories of her protagonists without prejudice. In the context of the emerging women’s movement in the USA during the 1960s and 70s, and as a freelance photographer at a time when print media was suffering its first major crisis, Mark fought her way to the forefront of female voices in photojournalism. Encounters provides an expansive cross-section of the photographer’s full body of work. The book focuses on five iconic series that contributed significantly to Mark’s reputation: Ward 81 in which she photographed residents at an Oregon psychiatric hospital for women; a reportage on prostitutes on Falkland Road in Mumbai; a tribute to Mother Teresa’s charitable work; Indian Circus, documenting traveling circus families; and the long-term project Streetwise, in which Mark followed the life of Erin Blackwell (Tiny) for more than 30 years. For the first time, this book contextualizes these works within Mark’s œuvre and presents them alongside original magazine spreads and archival material—including contact sheets, letters and notebooks—to reveal the breadth of her accomplishments and singularly compassionate eye.
Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) received her Master’s degree in photojournalism from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. In the late 1960s she relocated to New York City, documenting counterculture movements and societal outsiders. Over the course of her lifetime she published 18 photo books and frequently contributed to Life, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and other publications.

Conceived and edited by film director Martin Bell, Mary Ellen Mark’s husband and collaborator for over 30 years, The Book of Everything celebrates in over 600 images and diverse texts Mark’s extraordinary life, work and vision. From 1963 to her death in 2015, Mark told brilliant, intimate, provocative stories of remarkable characters whom she would meet and then engage with—often in perpetuity. There was nothing casual or unprepared about Mark’s approach; she unfailingly empathized with the people and places she photographed.

For this comprehensive book Bell has selected images from Mark’s thousands of contact sheets and chromes—from over two million frames in total. These include her own now-iconic choices, those published once and since lost in time, as well as some of her as-yet-unpublished preferences. Bell complements these with a few selections of his own. Along with Mark’s photos made in compelling, often tragic circumstances, The Book of Everything includes recollections from friends, colleagues and many of those she photographed. Mark’s own thoughts reveal doubts and insecurities, her ideas about the individuals and topics she photographed, as well as the challenges of the business of photography.

The images of Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) are icons of documentary photography. Her 20 books include Ward 81 (1979), Falkland Road (1981) and Indian Circus (1993). Her last book Tiny: Streetwise Revisited (2015) is a culmination of 32 years documenting Erin Blackwell (Tiny), who was featured in Martin Bell’s 1985 film Streetwise and Mark’s 1988 book of the same name. Mark’s humanistic work has been exhibited and published in magazines worldwide.