Mary Ellen Mark – Iconic Photographer & Social Artist

The passing of iconic photographer, Mary Ellen Mark, is my inspiration behind this post. Mark’s work has covered some very interesting social issues over the past 50 years. Some of my favorite photographs she has published are her documents of young people.

Mark enjoyed being a part of each community she was documenting. She thought that being a woman allowed her to capture some of the more intimate photographs. By being a woman, she believed, people trusted her more than if she were a man, especially when documenting children and other women.

Streets of the Lost

Mark photographed homeless teenagers in Seattle.

Mary Ellen Mark, 1984, “Laurie, 14, may end up as one of the lucky ones. She quit the Seattle street life soon after this photo was taken and went to live with a Christian group in Kent, Washington.”

American Beauty – Time Magazine

These photographs capture how children are influenced by the nuances of adulthood reminding us that our children become a part of our everyday lives including our bad habits and bad decisions.

Mary Ellen Mark, Amanda and her cousin Amy, 1990

“Mark knows something about the way children learn the poses of adulthood, the ones that will do them only so much good as adults. The barely postpubescent girl who flourishes her cigarette at us in a swimming pool looks as if she has already learned the ropes.”

Mary Ellen Mark, Crissy, Dean and Linda Damm, 1994

This is a portrait of the Damms, “a California family Mark first came upon in 1987 when they were homeless and living mostly out of their car. Seven years later, she photographed them again (here), when they were squatters on an abandoned ranch. In this devastating picture, Crissy, Dean and Linda Damm, daughter Crissy looks up at us from the bed she shares with her father and mother. On the shabby dresser beside her there’s a hash pipe, a Pepsi bottle and a plastic statuette of the Virgin Mary. Her sleeping father’s arm is wrapped around her, but his affections are probably a mixed blessing. At the center of the picture is the face of a girl literally hemmed in by a world she seems appalled to have realized is hers. She gazes upward from the debris with an expression somewhere between foreboding and resignation.”

These Aren’t Your Everyday Prom Polaroids

Mark explains, “The photographs make us realize how much the prom is a rehearsal for a wedding, “she wrote. “The future bride is practicing for a role that, despite all the apparent changes in our views of women and marriage, has remained remarkably unaltered ‑ a role that is weirdly and totally retro.”

Mary Ellen Mark, 2008, prom portrait of Shane Kammauff and Jenna Zschaebitz. Mark’s unusual 20×24 Polaroid camera weighs 600 pounds.