Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark has traveled to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Today, she is recognized as one of our most respected and influential photographers. Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Her portrayals of Mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothels in Bombay were the product of many years of work in India. A photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the basis of the academy award nominated film Streetwise, directed and photographed by her husband, Martin Bell. She is best known for being a documentary photographer, photojournalist, portrait taker, and advertising work.
"She demands clarity of issue, excellence of technique, and the ability of any image to stand alone. To elaborate, while editing she abstracts herself from the circumstances of taking the photograph. Mark is not a prisoner of nostalgic memory such as, "this is the woman who fed me when I was hungry in Mexico," "this was a good/bad day for me," or "the man in the hat had survived many tragedies," and so forth. The image itself, therefore, must prove its own reason for existing that will be meaningful, in some way, for the viewer."
Mark says, "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, and I think you have to be clear about that."

Start of Sequence as a Story Blog

Art Wolfe- a great landscape and travel photographer that I was reading about in the library. The book was photographs of landscapes and native cultures. I checked out his site and he is also shooting the world's fastest-disappearing wildlife. His vision and passionate wildlife advocacy affirm his dedication to his work. By employing artistic and journalistic styles, he documents his subjects and educates the viewer. His photographs show his love for the environment. His images take my breath away. Aerial shoots are amazing. He shoots people> festival, hair, human nature, portraits, world children. His places are what I am most drawn to> aerial, architecture, spotlight, surreal land. The spotlight is very interesting because it is a landscape where one part of the image is highlighted from a spotlight. It could be a whole mountain in a landscape, or a circle on a huge mountain, or inside a cave, a spotlight shinning down, or a spotlight of the sun through the clouds, etc. Wildlife includes camouflage. You don't see the animal at first, you have to really look at the image to see how the wild animal blends in with its environment. Lions in the savanna, wolves in the woods, cheetahs in grass, owls in the tree bark, white wolves in the snow, seal in the snow, etc. Wildlife also has single moment captures. This is where he gets the shot of action or movement. These are really amazing. The eagle scooping up food from the water, lions attacking a bison, a cheetah killing an antelope, a bear catching a fish, a seal about to kill its dinner, penguins jumping, hippos yawning, polar bears fighting, bats flying, horses running in water, bears swimming, birds flying, etc. They are moments that he captured. Prob. a very high shutter speed for the ones where the action is frozen in time. The environment with animals shows the animal and most of the image is showing its surrounding environment. In most of these images, he is getting pretty close to the animals, even if he used a 500mm lens. Last in this section is portrait of animals. This is basically him shooting just the animal close up. For all we know, these animals could be in captivity because we can't see their environment. Last category is impressions. This is showing color, pattern, repetition, shape, contrast, texture, framing the subject. He has prints available. Panoramas at 40" is $600! 50" is $1,000, and 70" is $1,500. Don't get me wrong, they are amazing, and I would love to have them, but it is so expensive for a print that isn't matted or framed. He has published 26 books! He is my new Favorite photographer!!

http://www.artwolfe.com/index.html