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I always wanted to photograph the universal subjects.

Mary Ellen Mark

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Mary Ellen Mark
Age: 75 †
Born: 1940
Born: March 20
Died: 2015
Died: May 25
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
Screenwriter
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Always
Photograph
Universal
Subjects
Wanted

More quotes by Mary Ellen Mark

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Im just interested in what makes a photograph.
Mary Ellen Mark
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In a portrait, you always leave part of yourself behind.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I respect newspapers but the reality is that magazine photojournalism is finished. They want illustrations, Photoshopped pictures of movie stars.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I think the prom is very serious also. It's an American ritual, it's a rite of passage, and it's very much a part of this country.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I think you have to have a real point of view that's your own. You have to tell it your way. And, I think that it's a mistake to shoot for a specific magazine's point of view because it's never going to be as good. You have to shoot for yourself and photograph [ the way] you believe it.
Mary Ellen Mark
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If you are interested in photography because you love it and are obsessed with it, you must be self-motivated, a perfectionist, and relentless.
Mary Ellen Mark
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Usually my ideas for work have revolved around my interest in people, especially people that live on the edges of society.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I’m trying to please myself certainly that’s a big criterion... though in a sense, I don’t take images just for myself. I take images that I think other people will want to see. I don’t take pictures to put in a box and hide them. I want as many people to see them as possible.
Mary Ellen Mark
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Sometimes I work on film sets. I've done this for 40 years. I always wanted to photograph on the set of an Ingmar Bergman film. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I'm not against digital photography. It's great for newspapers. And there are photographers doing great work digitally. When they use Photoshop as a darkroom tool, that's fine, too. But at this point of my life, after so many years, I don't really want to change, and I still love film.
Mary Ellen Mark
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There are some people who become best friends with everyone they photograph. There are people that I really like and admire and respect, but in a way I think it's better to keep a distance. I think you get better pictures of people that you don't know very well.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I'm interested in reality, and I'm interested in survival. I'm interested in people who aren't the lucky ones, who maybe have a tougher time surviving, and telling their story.
Mary Ellen Mark
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The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life.
Mary Ellen Mark
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I go into every story thinking I'm going to fail. I think about that all the time - I think it's going to be terrible. Every story is like the first I've ever done.
Mary Ellen Mark
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Learning how to use different formats has made me a better photographer. When I started working in medium format, it made me a better 35 mm photographer. When I started working in 4x5, it made me a better medium-format photographer.
Mary Ellen Mark
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No, I don't think you're ever an objective observer. By making a frame you're being selective, then you edit the pictures you want published and you're being selective again. You develop a point of view that you want to express. You try to go into a situation with an open mind, but then you form an opinion, and you express it in your photographs.
Mary Ellen Mark
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Everyone asks me how I get my subjects to open up to me. There’s no formula to it. It’s just a matter of who you are and how you talk to people - of being yourself.
Mary Ellen Mark
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It’s not when you press the shutter, but why you press the shutter.
Mary Ellen Mark
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A good print is really essential. I want to take strong documentary photographs that are as good technically as any of the best technical photographs, and as creative as any of the best fine-art photographs. [...] I don't want to just be a photo essayist I'm more interested in single images...ones that I feel are good enough to stand on their own.
Mary Ellen Mark
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A great photograph needs no explanation it functions by suggestion. There is no need to be explicit.
Mary Ellen Mark