Through her expressive photographs, Mary Ellen Mark takes us on a journey without barriers into the lives not often seen of others.
My main focus in this paper is to analyze Mary Ellen Mark’s social documentation through the connotative and denotative aspects of her photographs, which capture a scene but say a thousand words. A humanization to all her photographs, which is a true gift of Mark’s and is a style that seems to be disappearing today.
I have always been in “aw” of Mary Ellen Mark” since I was 12 years old. I wanted to travel around the world and capture life in a different perspective. She was my inspiration on many photographs I have taken in my life. When I was 14, I was living in another country and joined my first photography group. I used Marks inspiration to photograph poverty, war, and to capture portraits of lives not seen by others. At 15, I was given my own exhibit and I was able to show others photographs that said a thousand words. It was a success and after that moment I knew what path I wanted to take in my life.
Mary Ellen Mark has a very distinct style, typically narrating the lives of people that are in extremely heartbreaking situations, such as physical abuse, prostitution, poverty, and drug addiction. Marks ability to capture the brutal honesty of her subjects is extremely unique to her style of photography. She blasts through the scarred walls of her subjects and exhibits their raw vulnerability leaving no room for sentiment. Mark has often said that the reason she is able to capture her subjects in such an accessible state is because she is a woman. 1
Marks subjects are people and in every photograph she does as she preaches which is as quoted by Mark in her book “ Mary Ellen Mark: 25 Years”, “"I think you reveal yourself by what you choose to photograph, but I prefer photographs that tell more about the subject. There's nothing much interesting about me; what’s interesting is the person I'm photographing, and that’s what I try to show. And again, what’s interesting is letting the people tell you about themselves in the picture” Also a common theme in her photos is of kids forced to play adult roles, or kids weathered by life long before they should be. They've been burdened by maturity through necessity.4
"Lilly With Her Rag Doll" is a representational photo in one of Mark's photo essays called "Streetwise," which is a look into the lives of young children that have left home and family to live on the streets, surviving by begging for food, prostitution and dumpster diving in Seattle, Washington. Seattle to many others and me was seen as a clean and ideal American city. Mark’s photos, on the other hand, uncovered the reality of the city and the social problem that is everywhere in America. 1
"Lilly with Her Rag Doll" illustrates a young girl on the sidewalk with her rag doll.

"Lilly," looking to be around the age of 13, is dressed in obviously filthy clothes and smoking a cigarette. She is standing next to a wall where there is the word "dope" clearly carved into it. 1
I selected the photograph because it’s a powerful image that shoes reality. The photo selected shows a girl who is acting tough by smoking a cigarette, however she is holding a rag doll with her other hand. Her face is hardened by the many hardships she has already experienced at such a young age. The girl is smoking which makes her seem older, but the doll in her hand lets the audience know that she is just a child who is trying to latch on to her innocence. Mark shot in black and white because the image was meant to have a feeling of no hope, and of being abandoned. She is alone and homeless and the image forces people to realize what is occurring and the problems others are facing. 1 In another photograph from Mary Ellen Marks book “American Odyssey” she captures an image called “ Amanda and her Cousin, Amy Valese. This was taken in North Carolina in 1990. This image embodies a favorite theme of hers which is children acting like adults. 2 This photograph shows two girls in a kiddy pool. Grass and trees surround the girls. Both girls are staring right into the camera with blank looks on their faces. The girl on the left is a little chubby; she is sitting down in the pool with dripping wet hair. Her legs are completely submerged in the water and she seems to be wearing a t-shirt rather than a swimming suit. The girl on the right is skinnier and is standing up in a semi-frilly, two-piece swimming suit. She has her right arm across her chest and folded under her left arm. Her left arm is up and she is holding a cigarette in her hand; she has smoke coming out of her mouth. Her hair is also dripping wet from the clear water. The contrast in this photograph is clear. You can see that the pool is white, while the skinny girls swimming suit is clearly black and the cousin in the back is wearing a white shirt portraying good and bad. The photograph does not have much foreground and the middle ground is the two girls. The focal point is of the girls face as she is blowing smoke out of her mouth. This aspect of her is in sharp focus to also draw more attention to her in order to set the mood. The smoke also draws attention to the viewer, as it is shocking to see this little girl smoking. This photo is like many of Marks photographs in Black and White as to add to its dramatization as well as mood. The angle of view for the image is straightforward. It makes me feel like the girl smoking is presenting herself to the viewers and not holding anything back. 2
This photograph seems to be mainly about Amanda who seems to be a bit older than her cousin Amy. From the background story we know that Mark was photographing Amanda’s family on a series she was doing on violent children. Amanda pulling out the cigarette at the end and smoking displays her carelessness and attitude towards what others think of her. This photograph represents to me much of today’s youth who are growing up too fast and not being guided well. They have a little too much freedom, and even if they don’t engage in dangerous behaviors, the little girl is still wearing makeup and acting like she’s in charge when she’s probably about nine years old. She’s acting like she runs her own life and no one has any control over what she does. Also this photo resembles much of the south as well during the 90’s and today where parents are impoverished and children raise themselves. 2
This photograph may shock many viewers who see this child smoking with all this attitude and maybe allow them to ask why. Asking “why” is a big part of Marks photos. It’s a glimpse as said before into lives often not seen.
Another one of my favorite photographs from Marks Books is her book on India’s Falkland Road in Bombay that portrays the prostitution of young girls and women that has infested this area and now much of the impoverished areas of India. Mark decided to shoot this series in color as India has such rich and colorful aspects that bring a viewer in. It makes it all more intense to do so. 3
In this book I chose a photograph of a teenaged prostitute of Falkland called, Putla on her bed with a crushed rose, 1978.

The young prostitute is lying on her side topless on a weathered down low mattress covered with a dirty blanket. The walls are an amazing blue (as seen in many of the photographs of India) and very weathered down. The young girls skin and body seem to be abused and completely weathered down as well. 3
She is wearing a colorful mini skirt; a yellow bow in her pulled back hair, a flashy piece of costume jewelry around her neck and some dingy make-up. She is not looking into the camera. There is a smashed red rose that lay on the bed. 3
Analyzing the emotion and mood of this photograph you can clearly get a vibe of not only a loss of innocence but numbness. The smashed red rose I think symbolizes her vibrancy, her youth, her innocence, her soul and spirit. It was once living and now dead. The focal point of this photo is the rose and what it symbolizes. The other focal point is her eyes. Her position of lying and not focusing on the camera. Her eyes show her numbness to the realities that she lives on a daily basis. This photograph is harsh, the room, her body, her makeup and her surroundings to resemble her harsh life. 3
This photograph is heart wrenching and Marks amazing humanity and style has brought her story thousands of miles into our views. I have been to India and Bombay as well as Falkland and seen much of this disparity as well as harshness with my own eyes and yet I am still captured by Marks photographs.
Forget the dozens of awards, grants and fellowships. Forget the countless solo exhibitions in museums and galleries from the Whitney in New York City to the National Portrait Gallery in London to the Corcoran in Washington, DC. Forget even the 16 books of her work. All you have to do is just look at any half-dozen of her photographs of real people caught in moments of pristine encapsulation, forgetting who took the pictures. I dare you to not say, "Wow”. 4 Never are you left without emotion and an intimate feeling of connection with the photograph. Mary Ellen Mark is a rarity today and her work should be a reminder of what the true meaning of a photograph is. Not only is she incredible compassionate, but a teacher to me, and many beginning photographers as well as an icon to others. Her photographs are human, as close to reality as we can get from our homes as well as our privileged lives. Mary Ellen Mark is someone who made her “Mark” on this world and many of her subject’s lives. I do wish to be able to go to one of her workshops next year in Oaxaca, Mexico to have the privilege of capturing a bit of her vision, outlook and humanity within my photographs. As quoted by Mary Ellen Mark in an interview on vimeo” I recommend that you new photographers tape up the backs of digital cameras. It is only possible to judge if an image works when it’s printed, not directly on the screen of the camera. Most of what is now produced in computers changes the reality of what you are seeing. It is photo-illustration, not photography.” 5
This says it all about the true essence of a photograph just being literally a capture of reality at a moment in time!

ANNONATED BIBLIOGRAPHY- MARY ELLEN MARK

Mark, Ellen Mary. Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay. Germany: Steidl, Gerhard Druckerei und Verlag, 2008. This book contains photographs from Marks series of prostitutes who live in Falkland Bombay, India. Mark goes into detail describing Falkland and gives a brief introduction to it. The book has 65 photographs made over six weeks that show the daily life lived by women and men of the streets. The images are remarkable, shocking, beautiful, electric and emotionally powerful as well as colorful. The Falkland Road book gives us a deeper sense of Marks humanity side. She truly captures the variety of the individual’s lives, the color, passion and even tenderness.

Mark, Ellen Mary. American Odyssey, 1963-1999. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2001. This is said to be the unspoken poetry of our nation revealed. This book contains many images that have never been published as well as photographs from her best-known projects. From “Streetwise” to “The Damm Family”. Her imagery creates a fascinating portrait of our amusing, complex and at times unsettling country. The images span the United States. From KKK rallies to a senior citizen dance contest to the housing projects and beauty pageants, it covers the diversity of this country.

Mark, Ellen Mary. www.marryellenmark.com. This website is Mary Ellen Mark’s official website. It contains links of many of her images, a brief introduction to her work, a list of her galleries and a brief introduction to who she is.
Mark, Ellen Mary. Streetwise. New York: Aperture Publishing, 1992. While Mary Ellen Mark and husband ,Martin Bell, were filming their haunting masterpiece, Streetwise,in 1983,Mary Ellen was also busy taking their snap-shots...and what a worthwhile effort this was!

www.vimeo.com/interview with maryellenmark, 2012, Oaxaca Mexico. In this interview Mary Ellen Mark talks about what it takes to capture a photograph and her connection to her subjects.