March 11, 2006

• SATURDAY PHOTO
  (see sidebar for others)

  Marlon Brando on Set of Apocalypse Now,  Phillipines 1977

  by Mary Ellen Mark
  
  Mary
  Ellen Mark (1940-) was born in Philadelphia and began photographing
  with a Box Brownie camera at age nine.  She studied painting and
  art history for a bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania
  around 1959. She turned professional as a freelance in the mid 1960s
  when she returned to school at the Annenburg School for Communication
  at the University of Pennsylvania and received, after her graduation in
  1965, a Fullbright scholarship to photograph in Turkey and other
  countries in Europe for a year.  In her long career she has
  tackled many of the most difficult social issues of her time; including
  homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction and prostitution. She works
  almost exclusively in black and white. She has contributed to many
  publications, including LIFE magazine, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker
  and Vanity Fair. She currently works in her
  studio in New York, and is under contract to The New Yorker. 
  She’s had three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, won
  the Robert Kennedy Journalism Award, undertaken a Guggenheim
  Fellowship, and been awarded five honorary doctorates.   She
  maintains that the technical aspects (as well as the social aspects) of
  her work are very important – as she said in an interview: “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”.  She is currently happily married to photographer Martin
  Bell and resides in New York, NY.  Here are more of her photos.

  ---

  
  Deep Thought: 
  “I’ll take that little one, way in the back,” I said. “That little
  collie mix?” said the animal shelter guy. “No,” I said, “the other one
  behind him.” “The gray terrier?” he said. “He’s gray,” I said, “but way
  in the back, in the corner.” “You mean the water faucet?” he said. I
  realized then it was a water faucet, but I didn’t want to look like a
  jerk, so I said, “Yeah, that’s the one I want.” It ended up costing me
  almost five hundred dollars to get that faucet removed. But you know,
  I’ve still got that faucet, and I wouldn’t trade it for any dog in the
  world.”
  Today I am grateful for:  Graph paper
  Guess the Movie:  “By the authority vested in me by Kaiser William II, I pronounce you man and wife. Proceed with the execution.”  Answer:  The African Queen, 1951.  Winner:   hypatia.
  Bid to Give Bush the Boot
  Residents of a tiny Vermont town have joined forces in a growing fight to impeach the U.S. president
  But with plunging approval and a slew of scandals, an ouster attempt may be the least of his worries
  by Tim Harper  (Rest of article here.)

  • 10:29 pm
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