Mary Ellen Mark quotes

I work in colour sometimes, but I guess the images I most connect to, historically speaking, are in black and white. I see more in black and white - I like the abstraction of it. (Mary Ellen Mark)
Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
I'm just interested in what makes a photograph. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
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. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
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. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
I wanted to travel from the beginning. As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes, before I ever flew in one. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
Reality is always extraordinary. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
If I hadn't become a photographer, I would have loved to become a doctor. I would have loved to have done something that actually helped people and changed their lives. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
I was fascinated by my own prom pictures. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
Sometimes I work on film sets. I've done this for 40 years. I always wanted to photograph on the set of an Ingmar Bergman film. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity. (Mary Ellen Mark)
One of my all-time favorite photographers is Irving Penn. I wish I could have watched him work. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
Usually my ideas for work have revolved around my interest in people, especially people that live on the edges of society. View quote
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. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
There are some people who become best friends with everyone they photograph. There are people that I really like and admire and respect, but in a way I think it's better to keep a distance. I think you get better pictures of people that you don't know very well. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
I'm a documentary photographer. That's what I've always wanted to be; that's where my heart and soul is. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
Nowadays shots are created in post-production, on computers. It's not really photography. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
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. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
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. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark
I respect newspapers but the reality is that magazine "photojournalism" is finished. They want illustrations, Photoshopped pictures of movie stars. View quote
Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark - Image
Photo: Waterjunebug, CC BY-SA 4.0
Occupation: American Photographer
Born: March 20, 1940
Died: May 25, 2015
Quotes count: 20