Mary Ellen Mark, whose unflinching yet compassionate depictions of prostitutes in Mumbai, homeless teenagers in Seattle and patients in a state mental institution in Oregon made her one of the premier documentary photographers of her generation, has died at the age of 75.
“I worry with every project that I’m going to fail, and when it starts to go well, and I sense that something beautiful and important and meaningful is being created, it’s a fantastic feeling,” Ms. Mark said in a 2005 interview with The Telegraph.
In that interview, she assessed her work, saying: “I take sad photographs. But look at the tenderness.”
Girl jumping over a Wall, Central Park, New York City. 1967
'Rat' and Mike with a Gun, Seattle, Washington 1983.
Beautiful Emine posing, Trabzon, Turkey, 1965
Tiny in Her Halloween costume, Seattle, Washington, 1983
Ram Prakash Singh with his elephant Shyama, Great Golden Circus, Ahmedabad, India, 1990.
Mother Teresa feeding a man at the Home for the Dying, Mother Teresa's Missions of Charity, Calcutta, India, 1980.
Federico Fellini on the Set of Satyricon, Rome, Italy 1969.
Kamla behind Curtains with a Customer, Falkland Road, Bombay, India, 1978.
The Damm Family in Their Car, Los Angeles, California 1987.
Amanda and Her Cousin Amy Valdese, North Carolina 1990.