Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark (March 20, 1940 – May 25, 2015) was an amazing American photographer known for her photojournalism, documentary photography and portraiture.

She photographed people who were “away from mainstream society and toward its more interesting, often troubled fringes”.

This gallery of images are a little taste from her book Indian Circus published in 1993. The majority of the photo’s in the book were taken  during a six-month period between January, 1989, and January, 1990 (although a few are from the 70’s) when she travelled around India and photographed eighteen different circuses. Some big, some very small.

“Photographing the Indian circus was one of the most beautiful, joyous, and special times of my career. I was allowed to document a magic fantasy that was, at the same time, all so real. It was full of ironies, often humorous and sometimes sad, beautiful and ugly, loving and at times cruel, but always human. The Indian circus is a metaphor for everything that has always fascinated me visually” – Mary Ellen Mark

I love Mary Ellen’s work in general and for obvious reasons I am intrigued by this series, as she says above, the images are beautiful and often disturbing yet I think you can feel her love of the Indian Circus and the artists she documented.

Read more about the book and the artists HERE.

Check out more of her work on her WEBSITE

And you can still buy the book online – HERE

I hope you enjoyed,

Peace & Respect for all,

Hamish