Her work was exhibited in galleries and Museums, she published 18 books, and in the photography world everyone knew her.  Mary Ellen Mark, a world class Photojournalist and Documentarian passed away May 25, 2015 from a blood illness involving bone marrow failure.  Born and raised in Elkins Park, Pa. a suburb of Philadelphia Mark began her relationship with Photography at age nine with a Brownie Box Camera.  With a BFA in painting and Art History from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in Photojournalism, and a Fulbright scholarship she began her lifelong work of giving voice to people whose lives were lived at or near the fringes of society.

Mark had a reputation for getting close to her subjects.   Her work included subjects such as the Vietnam War protests, Woman’s Liberation movement, and social issues that included, homelessness, loneliness, drug addiction, and prostitution.  She traveled the world with her cameras that varied from time to time from 35mm, medium format, 4 X 5, and a 20 X 24 Polaroid Land Camera. In a Times of London interview she stated, "I'm for the underdog. I certainly feel that it's a land of unequal opportunity. I'm interested in having people feel for the people I photograph. It's an unfair world."  This theme was a constant in Mark's work, and it brought her to subjects in Mexico and India for her "Man and Beast" exhibition of April 2014.  Her photographs always perfectly printed explored her lifelong passion for photographing animals in circuses with their trainers.  This exhibition explored the subtle humanity of animals and the darkness within humans. Mark was able to freely explore her subjects because she photographed from the inside out.  She immersed herself in the subject matter and gained trust as well as understanding.  This ability allowed her subjects essence to be captured on film.  In the mid 1970's Mark worked on a series of photographs entitled Laurie, ward 81.  For this project Ms. Mark moved into an Oregon mental institution. Her stay there allowed her to blend into the surroundings and remove the camera as a distraction resulting in very powerful photographs, expertly printed as usual.  These straightforward stark photographs could have only been made because of the trust her subjects had in Mary Ellen Mark.

I admired Ms. Mark and her dedication to her work.  It is still rare that a person can follow their passion, and make a living doing what they love.  Mary Ellen Mark was very good at her work, an artist.  She intended her work to spur on social change, attitude change, and acceptance of life lived on the fringes of society.  It has been said the only thing we can count on is change.  Ms. Mark's work attempted to direct that change and encourage compassion and justice from the fortunate to the less so.  We are diminished by her absence, as are the subjects she chose for her life's work.  They have lost their champion.

I recently viewed the online album that is referred to as the Auschwitz Album. It is a chilling experience, looking at page after page of photographs of a crime that I cannot find the words to describe. The first book I viewed I found at, http://www.yadvashem.org. The second album, a record from the viewpoint of camp administrator Karl-Friedrich Höcker, left me equally speechless. This link; http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/laughing-auschwitz-ss-auxiliaries-poses-resort-auschwitz-personnel-1942/ shows the leisure photographs from the guards point of view.

The first series of photographs, documents the handling of prisoners that were deemed unfit to work. This group consisted overwhelmingly of women and young children. Waiting in long lines, their faces reveal nothing of the horror that waits just ahead. You see Mothers holding their youngest children, and older siblings holding the hands of their younger brothers and sisters. They look calm, innocent, and unafraid. The photographs, taken by camp guards, are without any emotional point of view, and are documentary in approach. Someone took the time to compose, focus, and adjust depth of field. Someone also gave no hint in those photographs that all of these people would soon be gassed to death. I was born the week after WWII ended. As a “baby boomer” it was impossible to grow up and not know the history of World War II. Looking at these photographs today leaves me with a sick feeling in my stomach, and at a loss for words.

The second album, “Laughing at Auschwitz” documents the leisure time of the camp personnel. Here are photographs of the men and women who worked at the camp and made it function. You move from one photo to another, essentially looking at what might pass for vacation photographs. Male and female, smiling, laughing, relaxing, eating blueberries, and playing the accordion. These images were produced to document and preserve, to make a record, and were proudly assembled into an album. There is even an image of Karl Hocker lighting candles on a Christmas Tree.

Learning about WWII and the Holocaust in school gives a generalized knowledge of the history of one of the most deadly events in human history. Estimates are that a total of 55,000,000 humans died as a result of WWII. Taking time to view the images in these two albums gives a much closer look, a look in intimate working detail. I find myself struggling for words that can accurately express my thoughts and feelings. I wonder about the disconnect from humanity of the person behind the camera. That person calmly and efficiently created a historical record. That person composed, focused, and adjusted the light meter of their equipment. Someone went into a darkroom and developed those negatives. Someone took the time to arrange the photographs in these two albums. How is it possible for humanity to betray it own kind on a scale such as this? What does it take to get someone to suspend their ethics, morals, and humanness to this extent? These two albums are a small part of the archive that exists documenting the Holocaust. In addition to all the photographic evidence there is the personal testimony of survivors, as well as the eyewitness evidence of the liberating armed forces that entered the camps.

From time to time a movie I've watched sticks in my head and hangs around for long periods of time, decades in fact. Zelig (1983), a Woody Allen film is such a movie. In this film Mr. Allen's image is inserted into real life historical footage. Along with cinematographer Gordon Willis a masterful job was accomplished long before the digital manipulation we are familiar with today was available. Fading and even scratches were applied to the stock to give it a realistic look. Good reasons exists for why we find these images so believable. First we have a deep seated belief that photographs are an accurate rendition of a moment, we trust photographs. This trust persists even though we all know photographs are often manipulated. Secondly, we judge photographs as truthful when they confirm our beliefs. The third reason is that we are not very good at telling a well done manipulated photograph from one that is not. Lastly, our minds are very good at retaining visual memories. Long after the textural context is forgotten, the image remains in our memory. Perhaps this trait goes all the way back to our pre-language ancestors, and their survival strategies.

The internet is full of manipulated celebrity photographs. While most are not very skillful in technique, a few are so well done that only a reverse internet search can reveal that it is faked. Proving an image is faked is not easy, but it is possible. Proving an image is truthful is much more difficult. When we enter the political arena, the potential for manipulated images influencing public opinion is very high, and rewarding if you can pull it off. As stated above, images tend to be retained in memory even when we know they are inaccurate, as long as they confirm a belief we hold dear. The times we live in make capturing and transmitting photographs very quick. The citizen photographer is everywhere and images of events appear on the nightly news in lightning speed. The process that news agencies use to vet the accurate image from one that is not can be a weak link in the publishing chain.

Photographers have always manipulated their work. That is what makes them creative. Camera angle, lens choice, depth of focus, and contrast are some of the first controls that are available to the photographer. Lets not forget the stories of Mathew Brady allegedly moving bodies during his Civil War years work to make his photos more dramatic. The darkroom process is where lots of other tools come into play also. These days programs like Adobe Photoshop make manipulation a cleaner process, that can yield very convincing results.

There is lots of research being done studying human memory. It seems that the way we remember things can be unreliable. All you have to do is ask a detective about witness reliability. Our senses take in a lot of information, then as it sits in our short term memory vault it can change. Photographs can jog the memory into recall, however what if the said photo is not accurate? How much authority do we give to a photograph?

This is where I am supposed to tie up this blog with a bit of wisdom. There is not a lot that I see we can do about the way we perceive the images that flood our minds. Its been said “question everything”, and that is most likely a wise suggestion. When looking at images, keep in mind that the creator of the work has a point of view, as do whomever is editing and publishing it. Skepticism is another tool that should filter your intake when viewing documentary photographs. Stand back for a second and observe your thinking process. Your intuition will sometimes cast a doubt that something seems just a bit off. Don't be so eager to dismiss that little spark. Let it register in your mind for another day.