Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer born on March 20, 1940 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mark had enjoyed photography as a child and her very first camera was a Kodak Brownie. She attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where she studied painting and art history. However, because Mark did not want to be confined in a studio, she chose to study photography at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. After finishing her schooling, Mark received a Fullbright scholarship and traveled to Turkey, Europe and the Middle East to take photographs. When she returned to the U.S. in 1966, Mark settled in New York City. Mark first won attention with a photograph in a photo-essay contest in Look magazine of heroin addicts in London. After this, she landed more magazine assignments and even worked on film sets as a still photographer. One film Mark captured in still photography was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, starring Jack Nicholson. To continue her traveling experience, Mark also took several trips to India and the Middle East to photograph the many subcultures of the area. While she was there, Mark spent time with Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic humanitarian worker, in Calcutta (Figure 1). During these trips, Mark created a photo series on Indian circuses. Included in this series is a photograph of a monkey trainer’s daughter, Figure 2, in New Delhi, India. The most gripping photos by Mark are said to be included in her series Streetwise, an assignment for Life magazine in 1983 on runaways and street children in Seattle, Washington (noteablebiographies.com). Mark and reporter Cheryl McCall chose to shoot in Seattle because at the time it was known as America’s most livable city (maryellenmark.com). When she arrived in Seattle, Mark met a 13-year-old girl who looked even younger than her age. She wore very tight clothes and a lot of make-up. This girl’s street name was Tiny. After making a connection with this young girl, Mark told her husband, filmmaker Martin Bell, about the encounter and they decided to go back to Seattle to make a film. After the article “Streets of the Lost” appeared in Life magazine in July of 1983, Mark and McCall returned to Seattle to make Streetwise the film with donation assistance by McCall’s good friend, singer/songwriter Willie Nelson. Because these children were living on the streets with no one to provide for them, they did not trust anyone that came into contact with them. However, on the first night of filming, Bell earned their trust. He was filming a 16-year-old street kid named Chrissie who was visibly not okay with Bell filming her. Bell took out the film from his camera and gave it to Chrissie. This act showed the children that it was okay if they did not feel comfortable with being filmed and from that moment on, Chrissie was very friendly and wanted to be filmed (www.maryellenmark.com). After 50 hours of film shot by Bell and even more by Keith Desmond, Streetwise was released in theaters nationwide in 1984 and was nominated for an Oscar in 1985. One of the most famous photographs from Mark’s Streetwise series was of Tiny, Figure 3, on Halloween in a costume that was supposed to resemble a French prostitute. The photo comes off as a fashion piece and many that have seen the photo do not know the story behind the face, who as a young girl, dreamed about horses, yachts, diamonds and jewels (www.getty.edu). Tiny is one of the only street children that Mark can still keep on contact with. Many other children are either in jail or have died. Although her life is still terribly hard, Tiny now has a husband and has been working to get clean while she has had 10 children of her own. Tiny tells Mark how better her life is now in a one-on-one interview in 2005:
“I have a husband, Will, who takes care of me and the kids, and I have somewhere to sleep, eat, and take a shower, and I don't have to worry about money because he works. I mean, it can be hard, because I'm here by myself while Will's at work, and it gets a little frustrating. But sometimes I play with the kids and have fun ........ It’s kind of boring, but I'd rather be doing what I'm doing now than be running around downtown, looking for my next hit or a place to sleep or eat. So my life is my kids and my husband, the home. And I would never give it up for that type of life ever again” (aperture). Another street kid that Mark followed was Dewayne Pomeroy, seen in Figure 4. He was panhandled to eat each day, his mother abandoned him and his father was in jail during the time Mark’s Streetwise series was taken. Dewayne bounced around between abandoned houses and sleeping on the streets of Seattle. During the filming of Streetwise the film, Dewayne committed suicide in a juvenile jail right before being released.

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http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-Le-Ra/Mark-Mary-Ellen.html http://www.maryellenmark.com/books/titles/streetwise/300E-023-12A_stwise_520.html http://www.maryellenmark.com/films/titles/streetwise/streetwise_home_page.html http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1291901/bio http://www.vice.com/read/mary-ellen-mark-144-v15n7 http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/aperture/904I-000-007.html http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=254116 http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/Photographer%27s%20Forum/932B-000-001.html http://www.maryellenmark.com/text/magazines/life/905W-000-058.html