Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark ( born March 20, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American photojournalist and former member of the photo agency Magnum Photos.
Biography
Mark studied from 1958-1962 Art and Art History at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1963 she began to photograph. She made her bachelor's degree in 1964 in the art photojournalism. From 1966 she worked, funded by a grant, as a freelance photographer with a focus on social criticism. This is followed by trips to India and Turkey.
In the 1970s she led numerous photo workshops and received in 1975 a grant of the United States Information Agency. In 1976, she was by invitation member of Magnum Photos in 1977 a full member of the Agency. She left Magnum in 1981 to devote himself to his own projects. AB 1983, she also worked as a sports journalist.
Work
Mary Ellen Mark achieved numerous awards for her work. Our focus is on you to supply human subjects and the humanistic concerns in a clear, direct imagery reports on marginalized groups. You hereby rejected the " lurid " from photojournalism and avoided a pretentious imagery. The photographer does not want to hurt their dignity the mugged man; so, for example, their subtle photo series on Indian prostitute (in collaboration with Mother Teresa ) and her reports on the unemployed, the disabled, the homeless, junkies or children who live in poverty in the Bronx.
Marks work life of their composition, which was implemented with perfect technology. Mark lined up so that in the long gallery socially critical photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and W. Eugene Smith and unobtrusively put their " photographic finger " in the wound of the society.
For her work Mary Ellen Mark was awarded the 1994 Erich Salomon Prize of the German Society for Photography (DGPh ).
Publications
- Mary Ellen Mark and Maya Angelou ( text ): American Odyssey 1963-1999, Aperture, 1999, ISBN 0-89381-880-1 (English)
- Mary Ellen Mark and Weston Naef: Exposure. Phaidon Press 2005, ISBN 0-7148-4404-7 (English)