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" Photograph the world as it is. Nothing's more interesting than reality. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Reality
Interesting
Nothing
Related Quotes:
" 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 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
Black
Black And White
See
" I'm just interested in what makes a photograph. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Makes
Interested
Photograph
" I don't like gimmicky pictures; I've always hated them. I like pictures that are very clear and clean, whether you're a great street photographer - somebody like Friedlander or Winogrand or Cartier-Bresson - or whether you're a portraitist, like Irving Penn. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Pictures
You
Street
" 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'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
" 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 was fascinated by my own prom pictures. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Prom
My Own
Fascinated
" 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
" I was something of a problem kid. I was emotional, wild, rebellious at school. I'm very touched by kids who don't have advantages; they are much more interesting than kids who have everything. They have a lot of passion and emotion, such a strong will. "
Mary Ellen Mark
School
Strong
Wild
" Reality is always extraordinary. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Extraordinary
Reality
Always
" 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 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
" 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
" 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
" You don't need to retouch if you know how to light. "
Mary Ellen Mark
You
Need
Light
" A lot of people who don't have anything collect dogs; it's kind of a symbol of having something. "
Mary Ellen Mark
People
Something
Kind
" 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
" One of my all-time favorite photographers is Irving Penn. I wish I could have watched him work. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Him
Work
Wish
" 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
" Looking at my own prom photograph reminds me of how significant that moment was - and how fleeting life is. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Me
My Own
Own
" 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
" I think photography is closest to writing, not painting. It's closest to writing because you are using this machine to convey an idea. The image shouldn't need a caption; it should already convey an idea. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Photography
Writing
Think
" If I'm in an unusual or extreme social environment, I always want to know what it's like to grow up there and experience it as normal, everyday life. And I want to know what sort of adults these children are going to turn into. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Children
Environment
Experience
" 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
" 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 always think, 'What does this picture mean? What's the best place to put my camera? Do I have anything extra in the picture, things in the background that will distract? Am I in the basic position that will give the essential things for this picture but not too much?' "
Mary Ellen Mark
Camera
Best
Picture
" I don't relax. I can't take vacations. I'm obsessive-compulsive, and I worry with every project that I'm going to fail. When it starts to go well, and I sense that something beautiful and important and meaningful is being created, it's a fantastic feeling, and I find it very hard to stop. "
Mary Ellen Mark
Worry
Stop
Beautiful
" 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
" 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