Publisher: A Bullfinch Press Book Little Brown & Company in association with the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House and with the support of the Professional Photography Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Published: 1991

Photographs Copyright © 1991 by Mary Ellen Mark
Text Copyright © 1991 by the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House Mary Ellen Mark's remarks about Ward 81 (notes 8 and 9) from Ronald H. Bailey, "Mary Ellen Mark's Poignant Scrapbook: Ward 81," American Photography 1, no. 1 (June 1978): 48, reprinted courtesy of American Photo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hachette Publishing Inc.

Director's Note

Mary Ellen Mark's vision gives the world an opportunity to see and experience human landscape that is drawn from her perception of what makes life unique. Her photographs are graphic documents of things felt and seen that might otherwise escape our attention, and they reveal a special use of photography to abstract from nature the essence of whatever subject stands before her lens. In using her camera as a social research tool, Mark has opened our eyes to all those aspects of humanity that live on the edge of society. We are grateful to Mark for her elegant and penetrating presentation of a more complete view of the world.

We wish to express special appreciation to the Professional Photography Division of the Eastman Kodak Company, whose generous support of this project has made it possible to present the exhibition and publication in a manner of the highest quality. Further, their insight in providing funding for the project that allowed Mark to produce new work in India is worthy of specific mention.
We also wish to acknowledge and express gratitude to Marianne Fulton, Senior Curator of the Museum, who organized the exhibition and wrote this book. She has given us a more complete understanding of Mary Ellen Mark's life and her contributions as an artist.

The exhibition that this book accompanies will tour the world for several years, and it is our hope that it will expand the audience for Mary Ellen Mark and increase appreciation for her work.

James L. Enyeart
Director

International Museum
of Photography at
George Eastman House

Acknowledgments

I will be forever grateful to Raymond H. DeMoulin of the Professional Photography Division of the Eastman Kodak Company and to Marianne Fulton of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House for allowing me to realize a twenty-year dream of photographing the Indian Circus. I want to thank Peter Howe of LIFE magazine and Leo Castelli and Patty Caporaso of Castelli Graphics for their support of this project. Also, I wish to express my deepest appreciation to Marianne Fulton, Teri Barbero, and Martin Bell for their special friendship and encouragement of all my work.

The circus photographs could not have been taken in India without the superb assistance of Dayanita Singh, Farrokh Chothia, Cherry Kim, and David Liittschwager. I want to thank Sarah Jenkins for her beautiful prints for this book and the exhibition and Ernst Wildi for his generous loan of Hasselblad equipment for the circus project, and, of course, I want to offer special love and thanks to the wonderful people I met in the Indian circuses. The owners and the many talented artists made me feel totally welcome and gave me a great deal of their time. I think quite often about my incredible experience with the Indian circuses--the Great Amar Circus, the Great Apollo Circus, the Great Bharat Circus, the Great Bombay Circus, the Great Empire Circus, the Great Famous Circus, the Great Gemini Circus, the Great Golden Circus, the Great Jumbo Circus, the Great Lion Circus, the Great National Circus, the Great Oriental Circus, the Great Raj Kamal Circus, the Great Rayman Circus, and the Great Royal Circus--and I miss them very much
.
This book represents some of the strongest images I have taken over the past twenty-five years. They could not exist without the people I photographed having let me enter their lives. There is no way I can ever repay them for what they have given me.

Mary Ellen Mark

September 7, 199O
New York City

Introduction to Essay

This project has been a truly collaborative effort: Mary Ellen Mark and I spent days discussing photography; looking at, choosing, comparing, substituting photographs; and discussing photography once again. She and her husband, Martin Bell, opened their files and their home to me. Martin shared, in equal measure, Mary Ellen's critical eye and capacity for overwork. His dry humor provided just the right amount of leavening.

Sincere thanks go to Raymond H. DeMoulin, general manager of the Professional Photography Division and vice president of Eastman Kodak Company. Enthusiastic from the time he first heard about the exhibition, Ray not only encouraged both show and book but also made it possible for Mary Ellen to spend six months in India photographing the Indian circuses. Three editions of the exhibition will travel around the world. Thus, the scope of the project has been expanded and enhanced by Ray's concern and Kodak's support.

Teri Barbero of the Mary Ellen Mark Library and Jeanne Verhulst of this Museum provided the main assistance in assembling information and images for the book and exhibition. Sarah Jenkins printed all of the photographs.

Crucial to my understanding of the photographer, her photographs, and the publishing world were interviews with photographers Ralph Gibson, Greg Heisler, and Aaron Siskind; Prudence Heisler, story researcher; Peter Howe, photo editor at LIFE; and Kathy Ryan, photo editor of The New York Times Magazine. I thank them for the time they so generously shared.

This book and the traveling exhibitions it accompanies would not have been possible without the work of many individuals at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. Special thanks goes to James L. Enyeart, director, for his questions and good advice. My appreciation also goes to Barbara Galasso and Marian Early, Darkroom; Mark Boran, Mike Easley, and Carolyn Rude Zaft, Exhibitions; Rachel Stuhlman, Becky Simmons, and Barbara Schaefer, Library; Patricia Musolf, Marketing; Eliza Benington, Publicity; Ann McCabe and James A. Conlin, Registration; and Martha Rock Birnbaum, formerly of Volunteer Services.

I particularly appreciate the opportunity to work on another publication with editor Terry Reece Hackford of Bulfinch Press and designer Jim Stockton.

But most of all, my thanks go to Mary Ellen.

Marianne Fulton

Rochester, New York