Mary Ellen Mark
Born 1940, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
Died 2015, New York
1962 BFA University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
1964 MA University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Selected museum exhibitions: Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach (2015); Philadelphia Museum of Art (2000, 2012); Cleveland Museum of Art (1996); National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. (1994); George Eastman House, Rochester (1992); International Center for Photography, New York (1992); California Museum of Photography, Riverside (1982, 1991); Santa Barbara Museum of Art (1977, 1988)
Selected honors: Lifetime Achievement in Photography, George Eastman House (2014); Cornell Capa Award, International Center of Photography (2001); Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant (1997); John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1994); World Press Photo Award (1988); John F. Kennedy Journalism Award (1980, 1981, 1984); Fulbright Scholarship (1965)
Selected public collections: Baltimore Museum of Art; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Detroit Institute of Arts; The Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenberg, Sweden; International Center of Photography; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art
Mary Ellen Mark used her camera to create striking portraits of marginalized people, capturing images of war protestors, the women’s liberation movement, and transvestites, and spotlighting social issues such as homelessness, prostitution, and drug addiction. Mark explained: “I’m just interested in people on the edges. I feel an affinity for people who haven’t had the best breaks in society. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence.”