Tim, Nina and Sean

Mary Ellen Mark - Exhibitions

Background​:

● She is an American photographer born in 1941 and died in 2015

● Earned a masters degree in photojournalism in 1964 and a bachelor's degree for
painting and art history in 1962.
● She is best known for her documentary of 1960’s counterculture which featured
protests for the Vietnam war heavily
● Mark travelled repeatedly to India (1968 and 1980) to photograph the prostitutes of
Mumbai and the work of mother teresa
● Mark immersed herself into the subjects lives to understand the individuals, which
inspired her photographies
○ Three books resulted from her work in india
■ Prostitutes of Bombay (1981)
■ Photographs of Mother Teresa's Missions of charity in Calcutta (1985)
■ Indian Circus (1993)
● “I’d rather pull up things from another culture that are universal that we can all relate
to,” - Her answer regarding her approach to photography
● She also is known for her photography of “homeless people, prostitutes and junkies”,
people who were living in harsh circumstances, in order to highlight the lives that
marginalized people, mainly in the US faced
● Her work has been published in a series of well known magazines: Time, Vanity Fair,
Paris Match, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, to name a few
○ Her work has also been recognised internationally through a series of awards
the most notable being the Guggenheim scholarship, the Cornell Capa award
and Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the World
Photography Organization in 2014, a year before her death

The stories her photographs/exhibits tell:

Picture of the exhibition "Streetwise"
reflecting the life of teens in Seattle,
the self proclaimed best city in the
world. The pictures became a clarion
call, for children. Mark spent her
whole life using her photography to
represent those that seek visibility.
Streetwise was an attempt to shine a
light on the forgotten youth of Seattle,
a city that is meant to be prospering.
Tim, Nina and Sean

This photograph is part of Marks’ series “Ward 81”, which was taken in Salem, Oregon, in
1976. The image is called “Mary Frances in the tub”. Mark spent 36 days in Ward 81, taking
pictures of the female inmates residing within. These images show the haunting impact which
the ward had on these women, and the shadows which lurked within. Much like the image
above, Mark used her photography to tell the stories of people who could not tell them
themselves, or may not have the opportunity to, for example the women in Ward 81.

How can you link it to society in a doll's house?

Mark as a humanist is known for representing those that can't or havent spoken up yet. Her
pictures depict a very dark reality that many try to suppress. This reflects the society in a
dolls house and especially the relationship between Nora and Torvalt. Nora believed she was
happy for the eternity of the story line as by societal standard she should be (according to her
wealth and status), however it is only by the end that she manages to find the courage and the
realization that she has not found her own purpose yet. This more than anything reflects the
societal flaws of which the standard for happiness have been set for someone. This is similar
to the photographs of Streetwise which are meant to represent the most popular city in the
world, however she exposed the truth behind the minority.

In a Doll’s House, the patriarchal society painted by Ibsen is representative of female

oppression and the view that women are valued less than men, and simply because of their
gender, are seen as less important members of society. In the Doll’s House, Nora is trapped
by these societal standards, and through the play is seen to be fighting female liberation, and
gives the female characters in the play a voice. This links to Marks’ work because through
her photography she depicts the stories of those who society deems less worthy, the
“prostitutes, junkies, homeless people”, as well as those stuck in situations such as Ward 81.
Her photography gives these people representation, but more than that it shows how our
society does not stray far from one painted by Ibsen, where if one does not meet certain
standards (in the Doll’s House that is being a man) then they are seen as less valued members
of society. Through her work such as Streetwise, Ward 81, Silver Gelatin, amongst others,
Tim, Nina and Sean

she is able to create a space where they are viewed as valuable as others. The mere fact that
she spent so long in each place not only taking photographs but also immersing herself in the
culture or with the people she was photographing says as much.

Do photographers work like authors to capture human experiences?

The essential purpose of a photographer is to communicate to the viewer what they have
captured. They work and are compelled to inform, educate, entertain, reform or share some
experience with others. In this sense, photographers can capture human experiences in their
own works if their goal is to do precisely that. If they have photographed or captured a
person, they have already inherently captured a human experience despite what their original
aim of the image was. So at its core, photography and writing both are able capture human
experiences equally.

Where some differences arise is the method a photographer captures human experiences
compared to an author. A photographer is limited by the constraints of an image, which is
why the medium is, at times, challenging to present and invoke the targeted feeling from the
audience. An image in reality is only a visual stimulus; there is however more to how a
person can experience and take in information from an author or writer. This is why
photography is considered challenging to get right and to perfect due to the absences of
potential senses that would better help convey and communicate what the photographer has
captured. Writing on the other hand, can very easily appeal to all senses: auditory, gustatory,
visual, etc. Writing in itself is not constrained to a piece of paper and therefore can be
manipulated to offer a whole range of experiences you may typically not find in photography.
But you could also say photography is not constrained to the paper they have been printed on
or the website they are being displayed, similarly to writing. Although photos are simply a
visual representation of what the author has aimed to capture, through a person’s experience
and what the author has chosen to include in the image - the photograph can also fairly appeal
to other senses that initially may have been thought to have been missing from the
experience.

Hitchens captures human experiences through his writing. But on top of his descriptive
articles, his well thought out analysis and insightful comments of issues or situations provides
that further information to assist the reader in understanding the message

Both mediums, in their work, have similar impacts when displaying or conveying a human
experience. Where writing aims to describe and depict something you cannot see, a
photograph lets the image describe itself. Where writing can give you the context, details and
other important information to interpret human experiences, the other provides the physical
material to apply all that information. Both are equally important to help better depict what
ultimately the authors want to convey.