On Mary Ellen Mark

Fig. 1: Mark 1992. Clayton Moore, The Former Lone Ranger, Los Angeles [photograph]

Even though my images are composites and usually contain a full scene, I still think of them somewhat as portraiture.  It is all about representing the subject.  My images focus on children, and the images have a lot going on in them, since children have a lot going on in their heads.

In the last webinar Mary Ellen Mark was recommended.  I was able to locate some great portraiture advice published by her, posthumously.

The first advice is to try to shoot images that follow the grain of the subjects personality.  "It's not a good idea to try to ask people to behave in ways that don't seem natural for them" (Mark 2015). The picture is not all about you as a photographer, but about the person themselves.  I strive for this in my work as well.  Since I want my image to be representative of the child's life there is a disconnect if I don't get to know the child and the family in a personal way.  I think some of my images that don't work for me typically have to do with my own constructed ideas about the child, but a gap in what actually is the child.

The other element I appreciated was that she strives for her images to go beyond her story. She strives for every image to be epic, though she realizes that may not be possible.  I like her tenacity there.

In the end she recommends not letting the great legacy of history's photographers paralyze you.  She encourages all to contribute to the legacy and be your own person.   She says not to stress over making your style different, that will come from shooting from your own point of view (Mark 2015).

Mary Ellen Mark represented the distinctive but commonplace (Oxford University Press 2018).  I love the contradictory idea there.  I feel the children I work with are the same, distinctive and commonplace, unique but not alone.  Mary Ellen Mark also looked for human elements that connect to all of us.


Figure 1: Mary Ellen MARK 1992 From: Mary Ellen Mark 2015 On Portraiture and the Moment, Photo District News. Vol. 35 Issue 9, p42-44. 3p. 

Mark, M.E.  (1940–2015) 2018, , 2nd edn, Oxford University Press.