8 Quotes by Mary Ellen Mark about photography


  • Author Mary Ellen Mark
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    I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.

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  • Author Mary Ellen Mark
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    A good print is really essential. I want to take strong documentary photographs that are as good technically as any of the best technical photographs, and as creative as any of the best fine-art photographs. [...] I don't want to just be a photo essayist; I'm more interested in single images...ones that I feel are good enough to stand on their own.

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  • Author Mary Ellen Mark
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    I think you reveal yourself by what you choose to photograph, but I prefer photographs that tell more about the subject. There's nothing much interesting to tell about me; what's interesting is the person I'm photographing, and that's what I try to show. [...] I think each photographer has a point of view and a way of looking at the world... that has to do with your subject matter and how you choose to present it. What's interesting is letting people tell you about themselves in the picture.

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  • Author Mary Ellen Mark
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    If you are interested in photography because you love it and are obsessed with it, you must be self-motivated, a perfectionist, and relentless.

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  • Author Mary Ellen Mark
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    The difficulty with color is to go beyond the fact that it's color ? to have it be not just a colorful picture but really be a picture about something. It's difficult. So often color gets caught up in color, and it becomes merly decorative. Some photographers use it brilliantly to make visual statements combining color and content; otherwise it is empty.

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