| i |
| Hi Mary Ellen and thank you for taking time to do this interview with me for the Collectors World Online website. This is exciting for me as I am a huge fan of your work. What an amazing career! You've photographed so many interesting people from Bill Clinton, Dennis Hopper, Clayton Moore, Yoko Ono, Billy Graham, Tim Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Al Gore, Candice and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy...ha... to Mother Teresa, just to name a few...do you have a favorite? Which is/are the most memorable? Each experience is an adventure. Do you have a least favorite? If I did I wouldn't tell you. Your photo of the Damn family is one of my all time favorite photographs. I tried to put into words (in the preface of this interview) why that photo is so appealing to me. What do you think is the appeal of the photo? I think the thing that most photographers want in their images is to make it iconic and it's very hard to define why an iconic image is an iconic image. I think it has something to do with what the people look like, where it was shot, the fact that it has very shallow depth of field, the fact that it is timeless. It became one of my pictures that did become an iconic image. I can't define why. Who have you not photographed that you would like to? Well, I would have loved to have photographed Michael Jackson. I never had a chance. Anybody else? Gosh, there are so many people that I would like to have photographed. That's really a hard question to answer. So many people. I certainly haven't photographed everybody. You've come close. Michael, because he was such a mystery. I would like you to photograph Stephen King. Oh really. Stephen is an interesting writer. He would be interesting to photograph. When you photographed Mother Theresa, did you have a chance to speak with her, and what was that like? It was a very formal relationship. You know, the way most relationships are with people that are famous. Quite formal. I did travel with her once. But I didn't speak much. I just concentrated on getting the photograph and not concentrating on making eye contact or conversation. Do you have any photographer friends that we might know? There are a lot of friends I've known over the years. Like Rob Gibson, we kinda came to New York at the same time, we remained very good friends. I have a lot of friends and people I respect and admire like Sally Mann, Graciela Iturbide a Mexican photographer. Gosh, many, many. Are you familiar with Shelby Adams work? Yea, he's a good photographer. I love his work. Wonderful photography. You've photographed Dennis Hopper as well. Have you seen his photography and did you like it? He's a fine photographer and a brilliant man. He was wonderful to photograph. He was really generous in the fact that he would reveal a lot about himself which was something a lot of famous people are very cautious about. He was very open. You did a book about twins. I'm an identical twin. What was the impetus for that book? Are you a twin? I'm not a twin. I've just always have been interested in twins. I think most photographers are interested in twins. Twins are an oddity of nature and it's very interesting to look at two people that are identical. Where did you find them? I went to the festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. What equipment do you use now? I'm still an analog photographer. I use Leika, Canon, Mamiya 7. I shoot everything using Polaroid 20 x 24. What do you think of digital and the new processes? It's different..I think digital is a different medium. I think it has some very good purposes you know but for me, I really prefer analog. But you know I admire it a lot, you know for young people starting out, it's very good...for newspaper photographers that need to send work back, it's very good, but there's no reason for me to change. I still love film...I love the whole process of film. Do you think "Photoshopping" is kind of cheating? It depends upon how far you go with Photoshoppiong, you can be cheating. It depends upon how far you take it and how honest you are about it. I think people that use photoshop as a "darkroom", it's fine. It's fine, like making a print. But I think when you really start to change things you have to be cautious and be careful. How do you want people to remember your work? I would just like them to remember my images as being strong images that move them. How do you make your subjects "comfortable"? There is no formula to making somebody be comfortable. You just have to be who you are and you have to have confidence in what you do. I think you just have to be who you are. I think that is all the questions I have. Thank you for your time. Okay, thank you and take care. Thanks Mary Ellen and thank you to Julia Bezgin at the Mary Ellen Mark Studio as well! A Conversation with Mary Ellen Mark by Mark Sean Orr April 7, 2011 You can view Mary Ellen Mark's wonderful photography and books on her website at: www.maryellenmark.com |
| ~ COPYRIGHT INFORMATION~ Photos on this page used by permission of Mary Ellen Mark.. All information published on this site is protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed or published without written permission from Collectors World Online. Collectorsworldonline.com ®2006-2007-2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-2013 Mark Orr® |
A Conversation With Photographer Mary Ellen Mark
by Mark Sean Orr
Collectors World Online
April 7, 2011
by Mark Sean Orr
Collectors World Online
April 7, 2011
Mary Ellen Mark is an American photographer known for her photojournalism, portraiture, and
advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been
exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades,
including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Mark became a unit photographer on movie sets, shooting production stills for films including
Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant (1969), Mike Nichols' Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge
(1971) and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) among her earliest. For Look
magazine, she photographed Federico Fellini shooting his film Satyricon (1969).[3] Mark has
since photographed on the sets of more than 100 movies, up through at least director Baz
Lurhmann's Australia (2008).
Mark has contributed to publications including the magazines Life, Rolling Stone, The New
Yorker, and Vanity Fair.
I first became aware of Mark's wonderful photography when I bought the book "The Spirit of
Family" by Al and Tipper Gore in which Mark has several photos included in the book along with
many other fine photographers. One photo in particular really stuck out as amazing. It is a
portrait of the "Damn Family" in their car. The photo leaves you feeling sad but it's also a
beautiful look at love. The little girl holding her brothers face in the photo is wonderfully
endearing. The woman looks completely worn out by life but also it seems she has found
comfort in her husband's arms. This scene has been indelibly imprinted in my mind since seeing
it. It's not a candid photo in the sense that it's not posed (it is) yet it is very real and very raw.
The following is a phone conversation I had with Mary Ellen Mark on April 7, 2011...I hope you
enjoy it as much as I !
Mark Sean Orr
advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been
exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades,
including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
Mark became a unit photographer on movie sets, shooting production stills for films including
Arthur Penn's Alice's Restaurant (1969), Mike Nichols' Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge
(1971) and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) among her earliest. For Look
magazine, she photographed Federico Fellini shooting his film Satyricon (1969).[3] Mark has
since photographed on the sets of more than 100 movies, up through at least director Baz
Lurhmann's Australia (2008).
Mark has contributed to publications including the magazines Life, Rolling Stone, The New
Yorker, and Vanity Fair.
I first became aware of Mark's wonderful photography when I bought the book "The Spirit of
Family" by Al and Tipper Gore in which Mark has several photos included in the book along with
many other fine photographers. One photo in particular really stuck out as amazing. It is a
portrait of the "Damn Family" in their car. The photo leaves you feeling sad but it's also a
beautiful look at love. The little girl holding her brothers face in the photo is wonderfully
endearing. The woman looks completely worn out by life but also it seems she has found
comfort in her husband's arms. This scene has been indelibly imprinted in my mind since seeing
it. It's not a candid photo in the sense that it's not posed (it is) yet it is very real and very raw.
The following is a phone conversation I had with Mary Ellen Mark on April 7, 2011...I hope you
enjoy it as much as I !
Mark Sean Orr
Mary Ellen Mark. Photo by Jenafer
Gillingham, 1988.
Gillingham, 1988.
| The Damn Family in their car, Los Angeles 1987 |
| Johnny Depp holding a hare on the set of Alice in Wonderland, Los Angeles, California 2009 |
Katharine Hepburn, with Henry Fonda between takes on the set of On
Golden Pond, Meredith, New Hampshire 1980
Golden Pond, Meredith, New Hampshire 1980
Dennis Hopper on the set of Apocalypse Now - Pagsanjan, Philippines, 1976
Mother Teresa at the home for the Dying, Mother Teresa's Missions of Charity,
Calcutta, India 1980,
Calcutta, India 1980,
| Yoko Ono, Brooklyn, New York 1997 |
Clayton Moore, the former Lone Ranger,Los Angeles, 1992
Gypsy Camp,Barcelona, Spain, 1987
Billy Graham, Queens, New York 2005
| Michael and Matthew Gragnani, 11 years old, Matthew older by 1 minute,Twinsburg, Ohio, 2001 |
| Donald Sutherland relaxes in a bathtub between takes on the set of The Day of the Locust,Los Angeles, California 1974 |
 |  |  |  |