Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
"Intimacy is very important in my photographs. Being a woman is often an advantage in enabling me to achieve this intimacy because people, especially strangers, are less threatened by women." Mary Ellen Mark, excerpted from An American Odyssey 1963-1999, published by Aperture.
Published by Steidl. Edited by Martin Bell, Julia Bezgin, Meredith Lue. Text by Karen Folger Jacobs, Kaitlin Booher, Miloš Forman, Max Houghton, Gaëlle Morel, Paul Roth.
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 Ward 81: Voices, an expanded edition of the original 1979 book, includes previously unpublished photographs, excerpts from interviews with patients and recorded conversations between Mark and Jacobs, as well as new essays examining the influence of their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.
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 These include her own now-iconic choices, those published once and since lost in time, as well as some of her as-yet-unpublished preferences.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.
Published by Aperture. Text by Isabel Allende, John Irving, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Bell.
In 1988, Mary Ellen Mark published a poignant document of a fiercely independent group of homeless and troubled youth living in Seattle as pimps, prostitutes, panhandlers and small-time drug dealers. Critically acclaimed, Streetwise introduced us to individuals who were not easily forgotten, including "Tiny" (Erin Blackwell)--a 13-year-old prostitute with dreams of a horse farm, diamonds and furs, and a baby of her own. Since meeting Tiny 30 years ago, Mark has continued to photograph her, creating what has become one of Mark's most significant and long-term projects. Now 43, Tiny has ten children and her life has unfolded in unexpected ways, which together speak to issues of poverty, class, race and addiction. This significantly expanded iteration of the classic monograph presents the iconic work of the first edition along with Mark's moving and intimate body of work on Tiny, most of which is previously unpublished. Texts and captions are drawn from conversations between Tiny and Mary Ellen Mark as well as Mark's husband, the filmmaker Martin Bell, who made the landmark film, Streetwise. Tiny, Streetwise Revisited provides a powerful education about one of the more complex sides of American life, as well as insight into the unique relationship sustained between artist and subject for over 30 years. Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) was a legendary American photographer known for her photojournalism and portraiture. Her work has been widely published and is included in public collections around the world. In 2014, Mark received the George Eastman House Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award.
PUBLISHER Aperture
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 10 x 12 in. / 176 pgs / 145 duotone.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 10/27/2015 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION Contact Publisher Catalog:
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781597112628TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Published by Damiani. Foreword by Milos Forman. Text by Karen Folger Jacobs.
In 1975, photographer Mary Ellen Mark was assigned by The Pennsylvania Gazette to produce a story on the making of Milos Forman's film of Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, shot on location at the Oregon State Hospital, a mental institution. While on set, Mark met the women of Ward 81, the only locked hospital security ward for women in the state: The inmates were considered dangerous to themselves or to others. In February of 1976, just before the ward closed (it ceased to exist in November of 1977, when it became the female section of a coeducational treatment ward), Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs, a writer and social scientist, were given permission to make a more extended stay, living on the ward in order to photograph and interview the women. They spent 36 days on Ward 81, photographing and documenting. Jacobs recalls their slow, inevitable assimilation: "We felt the degeneration of our own bodies and the erosion of our self-confidence. We were horrified at the thought of what we might become after a year or two of confinement and therapy on Ward 81." This new hardcover edition adds 10 pictures to the original.
Published by National Museum of Iceland. Foreword by Margaret Hallgrimsdottir. Introduction by Mary Ellen Mark. Text by Einar Falur Ingólfsson.
This book accompanies an international traveling exhibition of pictures by the acclaimed American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, made during the summer of 2006, and depicting disabled school-aged children in Reykjavik, Iceland. Most of the 70-some photographs were made at special schools, often during swimming lessons, but some were also made at the childrens' homes. Deeply moving, poignant, sad and joyous, these photographs take us into a reality that adjoins our own, but is very seldom seen. The pride and fear, the sheer effort, that Mark captures in these intensely human studies, can be difficult to bear. In addition to Mark's work, this volume contains 15 photographs of the empty schools by renowned Icelandic photographer Ivar Brynjolfsson, as well as 20 paintings by the children. Over the past three decades, Mary Ellen Mark has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker and has published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as Life and the New York Times Magazine.
PUBLISHER National Museum of Iceland
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 10 x 12.25 in. / 144 pgs / 15 color / 85 bw
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 11/1/2007 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2007 p. 121
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789979790143TRADE List Price: $44.95 CDN $55.00
Published by Aperture. Interviews with Mary Ellen Mark.
Mary Ellen Mark, voted by the readers of American Photography as the most influential woman photographer of all time, has made some of America's most iconic images in a career spanning more than three decades. In Twins, her fourteenth publication, Mark turns her acute eye and her heart to the extraordinary bond that exists between these very special siblings.
PUBLISHER Aperture
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 10.5 x 13 in. / 96 pgs / 83 reproductions throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 6/15/2005 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION Contact Publisher Catalog:
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9781931788199TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Mark works in a classic documentary mode: her work imprints itself on viewers in the way that only great photography can. --Harpers Bazaar
Recently voted by the readers of American Photography as their favorite woman photographer of all time, Mary Ellen Mark has made some of America's most iconic photographs. She is unsurpassed at shaping both the odd and the everyday into genuinely surprising photographs that subtly yet powerfully challenge our preconceptions or intensify our convictions. Mary Ellen Mark's poetic and at times disquieting photographs form a fascinating portrait of a complex, amusing, and occasionally unsettling country and its people.
PUBLISHER Aperture
BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 10.5 x 12.25 in. / 152 pgs / 144 reproductions throughout.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 6/15/2005 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION Contact Publisher Catalog:
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780893818807TRADE List Price: $50.00 CDN $60.00
Mary Ellen Mark: The Book of Everything
Mary Ellen Mark: Tiny, Streetwise Revisited
Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81
Mary Ellen Mark: Extraordinary Child
Mary Ellen Mark: Twins
Mary Ellen Mark: An American Odyssey 1963-1999