From Library Journal
With a candid intimacy uniquely her own, acclaimed photographer Mark partners with her subjects to make compassionate and complex portraits. By photographing her subjects in their environments, she creates powerful contextual images that make larger comments on the state of affairs in U.S. society. The images span the United States, ranging from Aryan Nations members in Idaho to rodeo workers in Texas, ballroom dancers in Florida, and shelter residents in New York. Also notable are the serial portraits done over years, as with those of Tiny from Seattle (1983-99) and the Damm family (1987-94). This quality collection is an exciting confirmation of Mark's contribution to contemporary photography and will serve both those familiar with her work, as well as newcomers. Mark's 12th book, this first broad survey of her American photographs from the beginnings of her career in 1963 to the present accompanies a major traveling retrospective organized by Aperture opening next month at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Highly recommended for large public and academic libraries, this is also an affordable overview of her work for small public libraries.-Debora Miller, Minneapolis Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Andrea Barnet
...Mark emotionally engages her subjects, and through this bond we, as viewers, are drawn in too.


Review
"Mark works in a classic documentary mode: her work imprints itself on viewers in the way that only great photography can."--Harpers Bazaar



Book Description
Mary Ellen Mark (b.1940) has excelled as a documentary photo-grapher for over thirty years. She has recorded the lives of people on the margins of society in dramatic, compelling images. Yet her work is more than a record of newsworthy events, presenting rich symbolic narratives about humanity in general. Other artists in this series include: Eugene Atget, Mathew Brady, Wynn Bullock, Julia Margaret Cameron, Joan Fontcuberta, David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Graciela Iturbide, Andre Kertesz, Dorothea Lange, Joel Meyerowitz, Boris Mikhailov, Lisette Model, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Eadweard Muybridge, Eugene Richards, W. Eugene Smith, Shomei Tomatsu, Joel-Peter Witkin