Mary Ellen Mark is able to get people in very unusual settings to forget all about her camera.
She engages her subjects in an intimate level, without violating their trust. Even when the subjects are in a difficult circumstance, her work captures their inate humanity.
These pictures are from her book Ward 81, a locked women's security ward of the Oregon State Mental Institution. Her pictures don't mask the pain or the suffering people feel, but they also don't feel fake or melodramatic. She's neither cruel nor saccharin.
It's not difficult to take a photograph that freezes a moment in time. What I like about Mary Ellen Mark is how she does it while keeping the emotional context of the moment intact.
She engages her subjects in an intimate level, without violating their trust. Even when the subjects are in a difficult circumstance, her work captures their inate humanity.
These pictures are from her book Ward 81, a locked women's security ward of the Oregon State Mental Institution. Her pictures don't mask the pain or the suffering people feel, but they also don't feel fake or melodramatic. She's neither cruel nor saccharin.
It's not difficult to take a photograph that freezes a moment in time. What I like about Mary Ellen Mark is how she does it while keeping the emotional context of the moment intact.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
itwasduke:
Being able to afford a gluttonous diet is part of the American dream.
impboy:
have you ever heard of an urban exploration group called Dark Passage? a lot of the buildings they used to do explorations in were abandoned mental wards. they ended up deciding they were modern-day equivalents of torture chambers. having worked in the mental health field on a VERY low level, i can assure you not much has changed from the days of "titicut follies."