99 Quotes by Mary Ellen Mark

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.

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

I was thinking about how fleeting and precious life is. Life is also arbitrary. For example, the choices that you make, the luck of being born into the right bed, to parents who support and help you and who love you. That doesn't always happen - and then, what happens when it doesn't?

I'm not much for cats. I'm terrified of mice. I've worked a lot with elephants, and they are extremely intelligent and sensitive, and thankfully, they seem to like me. You never want to get on the bad side of an elephant. And never trust a chimp.

Im just interested in what makes a photograph.

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.

What you look for in a picture is a metaphor, something that means something more, that makes you think about things you've seen or thought about.

You don't need to retouch if you know how to light.

I knew from the first moment I picked up a camera, on my first school assignment, what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was going to find a way to travel the world and tell the stories of the people I met through photographs.