1. CESCA HA IG
Unit 57: Photogr aphy and
Photogr aphic Pr actice
Resear ch of other photographer s
wor k

2. Mary-Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark was born March 20, 1940 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
She is an American photographer known for her photojournalism,
portraiture, and advertising photography.
She first began photographing with a Box Brownie camera at age nine.
she has a BFA degree in painting and art history from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1962, and a Masters Degree in photojournalism from
that university's Annenberg School for Communication in 1964.
Markphotography has addressed suchmovie sets, shooting
Her became a unit photographer on social issues as homelessness,
production stills for films including Arthur Penn's A e 's primarily in black
loneliness, drug addiction, and prostitution. She works lic
and ura nt (1969), Mike Nichols' Ca tc h-2 2 (1970), Ca rna l
Re s ta white.
Kno wle d g e (1971) and Francis Ford Coppola's A o c a ly p s e No w (1979)
p
among her earliest. addressed such social issues as
Her photography has
homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction, and prostitution.

4. This photograph was taken in December, 1987 when Mary Ellen Mark
spent a week following a homeless family for a photography project to be
feature in LIFE accompanying an article wrote by Anne Fadiman.
The photo is of the oldest child in the family, Chrissy, aged 8. In this
photograph you can see that Chrissy is clearly upset by something, she is
the main focal point of the image, behind her is a window, not much can be
seen outside of it.
The picture is in black and white, I think that this makes anyone who is
looking at this photograph look more closely at the features of the girls face,
they are not distracted by anything else.

5. Mary Ellen Mark is a portrait photographer, she mainly
works in black and white, using classic Kodak Tri-X film.

6. I like this photograph by Mary Ellen Mark because of how it shocks the
viewer, it is of a young girl named Amanda and her cousin Amy. Amanda
is the girl stood up in the paddling pool, she is only nine years old yet she
is smoking and mimicking actions of someone much older than herself.
This image is in black and white, I think this is effective because a
viewer isn’t distracted by anything in the background as it is all quite
plain and dull, whereas the two girls and the pool are much lighter,
drawing your eyes to them.
I think that images like this make a viewer want to find out more about
the subjects and who they are. Something that I would like to happen
with my photography.

7. I like this photograph by Mary Ellen Mark because of how it shocks the
viewer, it is of a young girl named Amanda and her cousin Amy. Amanda
is the girl stood up in the paddling pool, she is only nine years old yet she
is smoking and mimicking actions of someone much older than herself.
This image is in black and white, I think this is effective because a
viewer isn’t distracted by anything in the background as it is all quite
plain and dull, whereas the two girls and the pool are much lighter,
drawing your eyes to them.
I think that images like this make a viewer want to find out more about
the subjects and who they are. Something that I would like to happen
with my photography.