Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Markwas an American photographer known for her photojournalism / documentary photography, portraiture, and advertising photography. She photographed people who were "away from mainstream society and toward its more interesting, often troubled fringes"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth20 March 1940
CountryUnited States of America
wish photographer all-time
One of my all-time favorite photographers is Irving Penn. I wish I could have watched him work.
opportunity years done
Sometimes I work on film sets. I've done this for 40 years. I always wanted to photograph on the set of an Ingmar Bergman film. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity.
doctors people done
If I hadn't become a photographer, I would have loved to become a doctor. I would have loved to have done something that actually helped people and changed their lives.
black-and-white sometimes colour
I work in colour sometimes, but I guess the images I most connect to, historically speaking, are in black and white. I see more in black and white - I like the abstraction of it.
people obsession human-condition
The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life.
photography self perfectionist
If you are interested in photography because you love it and are obsessed with it, you must be self-motivated, a perfectionist, and relentless.
needs suggestions photograph
A great photograph needs no explanation; it functions by suggestion. There is no need to be explicit.
thinking views world
I don't think you can develop or learn a way of seeing or a point of view. A way of seeing is who you are, how you think and how you create images. It is something that is inside of you. It's how you look at the world.
ideas giving waiting
The subject gives you the best idea of how to make a photograph. So I just wait for something to happen.
reality extraordinary
Reality is always extraordinary.
people want break
I’m just interested in people on the edges. 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.
thinking people trying
I’m trying to please myself; certainly that’s a big criterion... though in a sense, I don’t take images just for myself. I take images that I think other people will want to see. I don’t take pictures to put in a box and hide them. I want as many people to see them as possible.
photography color use
The difficulty with color is to go beyond the fact that it's color ? to have it be not just a colorful picture but really be a picture about something. It's difficult. So often color gets caught up in color, and it becomes merly decorative. Some photographers use it brilliantly to make visual statements combining color and content; otherwise it is empty.
thinking views mind
No, I don't think you're ever an objective observer. By making a frame you're being selective, then you edit the pictures you want published and you're being selective again. You develop a point of view that you want to express. You try to go into a situation with an open mind, but then you form an opinion, and you express it in your photographs.