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" I respect newspapers, but the reality is that magazine 'photojournalism' is finished. They want illustrations, Photoshopped pictures of movie stars. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Stars
Reality
Pictures
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" 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. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Director
Museum
Real
" Every photograph is the photographer's opinion about something. It's how they feel about something: what they think is horrible, tragic, funny. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Funny
Photograph
Opinion
" I'm just interested in people on the edges. I feel an affinity for people who haven't had the best breaks in society. I'm always on their side. I find them more human, maybe. What I want to do more than anything is acknowledge their existence. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Feel
Best
Want
" I would die if I had to be confined. I don't want to feel that I'm missing out on experiencing as much as I can. For me, experiencing is knowing people all over the world and being able to photograph. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Die
World
People
" I'm not much for cats. I'm terrified of mice. I've worked a lot with elephants, and they are extremely intelligent and sensitive, and thankfully, they seem to like me. You never want to get on the bad side of an elephant. And never trust a chimp. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Cats
Trust
You
" 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. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Doctor
Become
People
" 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. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Country
Prom
Think
" I don't see how a woman in documentary photography could have children. I think it's a very difficult thing to do to raise a family, and I have enormous respect for people who do it. I'd hate to do something like that and not be good at it. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Respect
Family
Good
" I wanted to travel from the beginning. As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes, before I ever flew in one. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Dream
Used
Travel
" I've always been interested in photographing traditions and customs - especially in America. The prom is an American tradition, a rite of passage that has always been one of the most important rituals of American youth. It is a day in our lives that we never forget - a day full of hopes and dreams for our future. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Day
Youth
Future
" I'm just interested in what makes a photograph. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Makes
Interested
Photograph
" I've always been fascinated by twins. In my forty years of photographing, whenever there was an opportunity, I would take a picture of twins. I found the notion that two people could appear to look exactly alike very compelling. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Picture
Look
People
" I could spend my whole life photographing circuses. They combine everything I'm interested in - they're ironic, poetic, and corny at the same time. There's also something about a circus that's magical, sentimental, and almost tragic, like a Fellini film. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Circus
Magical
Film
" As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes before I ever flew in one. I really knew, when I started photographing, I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to enter other lives. I knew I wanted to be a voyeur. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Way
Country
Different Cultures
" 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
Done
Work
Sometimes
" Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Reality
Interesting
Nothing
" I'm a street photographer, but I'm interested in any ironic, whimsical images, and there's something very romantic about a circus. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Photographer
Romantic
Street
" 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. "
Mary Ellen Mark
War
Someone
Picture
" What you look for in a picture is a metaphor, something that means something more, that makes you think about things you've seen or thought about. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Look
Think
More
" I knew from the first moment I picked up a camera, on my first school assignment, what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was going to find a way to travel the world and tell the stories of the people I met through photographs. "
Mary Ellen Mark
School
Life
Moment
" 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. "
Mary Ellen Mark
My Life
Love
Life
" I really knew when I started photographing I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to be a voyeur. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Different Cultures
Just
Country
" You don't need to retouch if you know how to light. "
Mary Ellen Mark
You
Need
Light
" I realized all of the possibilities that could exist for me with my camera: all of the images that I could capture, all of the lives I could enter, all of the people I could meet and how much I could learn from them. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Camera
People
Possibilities
" In every successful still photographic project that I have completed, there has always been a turning point in the story where I felt that perhaps I was working on something that could be very special. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Special
Story
Always
" I'm a documentary photographer. That's what I've always wanted to be; that's where my heart and soul is. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Heart
Where
Soul
" Usually my ideas for work have revolved around my interest in people, especially people that live on the edges of society. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Ideas
Work
Society
" I was fascinated by my own prom pictures. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Prom
My Own
Fascinated
" What I'm trying to do is make photographs that are universally understood... that cross cultural lines. I want my photographs to be about the basic emotions and feelings that we all experience. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Feelings
Trying
Experience
" The obsessions we have are pretty much the same our whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition, life. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Mine
Human
People