A Tribute to Mary Ellen Mark: A Humanist at Heart
By Billy Kung
Eminent American photographer Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015), whose prolific career spanned five decades, passed away on May 25 at the age of 75, after suffering from myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease of the bone marrow.
As a young photographer in the early 1980s, Mark was one of several photographers whose work I took inspiration from. Among the large volume of works she has produced over the years, Ward 81 (1979) and Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay (1981) stand out as some of the best photographic documentary works of our time. Her book, Photographs of Mother Teresa’s Missions of Charity in Calcutta: Untitled 39 (1985), spoke to me on a personal level and galvanized my decision in 1990 to work as a volunteer for 15 weeks at Nirmal Hriday, a home for the destitute and dying in Calcutta.
