20 Mary Ellen Mark Quotes for You to Enjoy

Mary Ellen Mark

American Photographer

Born: Mar 20, 1940

Died: May 25, 2015

Always Life Me People Picture You

Related authors: Annie Leibovitz Ansel Adams Berenice Abbott Diane Arbus Dorothea Lange Gordon Parks Imogen Cunningham Robert Mapplethorpe

Reality is always extraordinary. Mary Ellen Mark

Reality Extraordinary Always

I'm just interested in people on the edges. I feel an affinity for people who haven't had the best breaks in society. I'm always on their side. I find them more human, maybe. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence. Mary Ellen Mark

Best People Society Side Find More More Than Anything Had Feel Edges Always Existence Affinity Than Human Maybe Just Want Anything Acknowledge Interested Breaks Them Who

Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality. Mary Ellen Mark

Reality World Nothing Photograph More Than Interesting

I love to photograph people in their own environment. It offers clues to what's important in their lives. Mary Ellen Mark

Love People Important Own Photograph Environment Offers Clues Lives

I'm most interested in finding the strangeness and irony in reality. That's my forte. Mary Ellen Mark

Reality Finding Most Irony Interested Forte Strangeness

One of my all-time favorite photographers is Irving Penn. I wish I could have watched him work. Mary Ellen Mark

Work Wish Favorite Penn Photographers All-Time Could Him Watched

Usually my ideas for work have revolved around my interest in people, especially people that live on the edges of society. Mary Ellen Mark

Work People Live Society Ideas Edges Around Interest

When I started out, it was considered very wrong to change an image. There were scandals if someone inserted a sky into a war picture or something. Now it's all about that. Mary Ellen Mark

War Change Sky Picture Considered Out Scandals Inserted About Someone Something Wrong Were Very Now Image Started

When you're working on a film, it's almost like photographing paintings at a museum. You're photographing somebody else's world. I just try and interpret it and make it real, and make it what the actors are about, what the director is about, and what the film is about. Mary Ellen Mark

You Director World Try Somebody Else Photographing About Almost Like Make Real Just Working Paintings Film Actor Interpret Museum

I'm staying with film, and with silver prints, and no Photoshop. That's the way I learned photography: You make your picture in the camera. Now, so much is made in the computer... I'm not anti-digital; I just think, for me, film works better. Mary Ellen Mark

I remember the first time I went out on the street to shoot pictures. I was in downtown Philadelphia, and I just took a walk and started making contact with people and photographing them, and I thought, 'I love this. This is what I want to do forever.' There was never another question. Mary Ellen Mark

Love Time People Remember Walk Thought First Took Out Photographing Never Contact Pictures Another First Time Making Question Forever Shoot Just Want Them Downtown Street Started Philadelphia

If I'm in an unusual or extreme social environment, I always want to know what it's like to grow up there and experience it as normal, everyday life. And I want to know what sort of adults these children are going to turn into. Mary Ellen Mark

A lot of people who don't have anything collect dogs; it's kind of a symbol of having something. Mary Ellen Mark

People Collect Kind Something Having Dogs Lot Anything Who Symbol

I don't relax. I can't take vacations. I'm obsessive-compulsive, and I worry with every project that I'm going to fail. When it starts to go well, and I sense that something beautiful and important and meaningful is being created, it's a fantastic feeling, and I find it very hard to stop. Mary Ellen Mark

Beautiful Relax Feeling Important Sense Every Starts Project Worry Find Something Take Fail Well Go Very Going Stop Being Fantastic Meaningful Created Hard Vacations

As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes before I ever flew in one. I really knew, when I started photographing, I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to enter other lives. I knew I wanted to be a voyeur. Mary Ellen Mark

Country Before Too Other Other Countries Way Kid Airplane Enter Dream Photographing About Knew Countries Knowing Voyeur Cultures Just Different Wanted Different Cultures Really Flew Used Ever Lives Started

I don't see how a woman in documentary photography could have children. I think it's a very difficult thing to do to raise a family, and I have enormous respect for people who do it. I'd hate to do something like that and not be good at it. Mary Ellen Mark

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