Because she is so intensely involved with her subjects, because she gets to know them intimately, because she loves them, she often reveals in one single shot their history, their emotions, their souls . . . But what makes Mary Ellen unique is her compassion. She never puts down the people she photographs. She is moved by them; she shares their suffering, their difficulties, their contradictions . . . What amazes me is Mary Ellen's tremendous energy, her commitment to her work . . . Never satisfied, she is on an endless quest for the universal beyond the particular. In my field they say you're as good as your last film. I always answer that I am as good as my next film. I feel close to Mary Ellen because she only looks forward. Her work is always in progress.

-Louis Malle, Rolling Stone, 1991
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