Mary Ellen Mark @ Howard Greenberg Gallery
Tiny blowing a bubble, Seattle, 1983
Portraits by Mary Ellen Mark, 1964–2015
May 5 — June 19, 2016
Mary Ellen Mark, who passed away last year, is known for her photojournalism, documentary photography, and notably, her portraiture. Attitude: Portraits by Mary Ellen Mark, 1964–2015 is curated by Melissa Harris, editor-at-large, Aperture Foundation, who notes, “In choosing the images from among many of her key series, I was defining attitude in terms of a sense of self, a kind of awareness and confidence, self-possession.”
The exhibition surveys highlights from many of her series including Indian Circus, humorous and bizarre shots of performers and contortionists and their animals from India’s liveliest circuses; and Falkland Road, gritty images of prostitutes and their patrons on a notorious street in Bombay. Selections from Twins and Prom explore — in large format Polaroids — siblings at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, and prom-goers across the U.S. Images from Mark’s work for LIFE magazine about the Damms, a homeless family in California, express the grim reality of survival on spare change and welfare checks.
Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street, Suite 1406, New York
Originally published at F-Stop Magazine.