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APERTURE
Mary Ellen Mark: Tiny, Streetwise Revisited
Text by Isabel Allende, John Irving, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Bell.
In 1988, Mary Ellen Mark published a poignant document of a fiercely independent group of homeless and troubled youth living in Seattle as pimps, prostitutes, panhandlers and small-time drug dealers. Critically acclaimed, Streetwise introduced us to individuals who were not easily forgotten, including "Tiny" (Erin Blackwell)--a 13-year-old prostitute with dreams of a horse farm, diamonds and furs, and a baby of her own. Since meeting Tiny 30 years ago, Mark has continued to photograph her, creating what has become one of Mark's most significant and long-term projects. Now 43, Tiny has ten children and her life has unfolded in unexpected ways, which together speak to issues of poverty, class, race and addiction. This significantly expanded iteration of the classic monograph presents the iconic work of the first edition along with Mark's moving and intimate body of work on Tiny, most of which is previously unpublished. Texts and captions are drawn from conversations between Tiny and Mary Ellen Mark as well as Mark's husband, the filmmaker Martin Bell, who made the landmark film, Streetwise. Tiny, Streetwise Revisited provides a powerful education about one of the more complex sides of American life, as well as insight into the unique relationship sustained between artist and subject for over 30 years. Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) was a legendary American photographer known for her photojournalism and portraiture. Her work has been widely published and is included in public collections around the world. In 2014, Mark received the George Eastman House Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award.
Featured image is reproduced from Mary Ellen Mark: Tiny, Streetwise Revisited.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Hyperallergic
Alina Cohen
Mark’s empathy and compassion toward her subjects make her work exceptionally evocative and powerful. These works provide an opportunity to re-examine the lives of those around us, the hardships and inner worlds hidden to the superficial eye, which Mark’s lens and spirit allowed her to capture.
Noted documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark passed away Monday, May 25 in New York. "She was a great storyteller," Aperture editor in chief Melissa Harris is quoted in The New York Times. “She got to know the subjects she photographed very well, and she was able to convey who they were and how they lived, as well as a sense of their interior lives. There are not that many photographers who can do that.” We are proud to have represented many of Mark's groundbreaking books over the past decade, and honored to distribute her last and forthcoming book, Tiny, Streetwise Revisited, which expands upon Mark's classic Streetwise with an additional 30 years worth of photographs of the poignant central character, Tiny, photographed here in 1983. This significantly expanded iteration presents the iconic work of the first edition alongside new images which have never been published before, plus texts and captions drawn from conversations between Tiny and Mark as well as Mark's husband, the filmmaker Martin Bell, who made the landmark film, Streetwise. continue to blog
"Tiny, 1983" is reproduced from Tiny, Streetwise Revisited, Mary Ellen Mark's, powerful follow-up to her seminal 1988 photographic study of a group of troubled Seattle street kids. Published posthumously (Mark died in May, 2015, at the age of 75), this remarkable volume records in words and photographs Mark's muse and protagonist from teenage prostitute to troubled adult and mother. "I wanna be really rich," Tiny told Mark in 1983, "and live on a farm with a bunch of horses, which is my main best animal… and have three yachts or more... and diamonds and jewels and all that stuff." continue to blog
"I cut myself when I was in my twenties. I got really mad at this guy I was going out with, a drug relationship, whatever. I did mine more as self-pity, wanting him to feel sorry for me, feeling sorry for myself. Yeah, cutting myself… that's what I did. And yeah, it would take the pain away because you're not thinking about that no more, you're thinking you just sliced your arm, and now that hurts. And so mine was for somebody to feel sorry for me." Stoned Tiny Sitting on the Bed (1989) is reproduced from Mary Ellen Mark: Tiny, Streetwise Revisited, releasing this week from Aperture. continue to blog
"Streetwise was about the street children of Seattle in 1983," Mary Ellen Mark wrote in her endnotes to this new, updated edition spanning 30 years in her protagonist's life. "This new book begins with those children, and then focuses on Tiny (Erin, as she's now called by almost everyone but me and Martin), and her life since then. Now, more than 30 years later, the book is more about one family (her family) and its survival against very difficult odds. In my work as a photographer I've always liked to return—to the same street, to the same people. The stories I've photographed are open-ended. With certain people, and certainly with Tiny, each time I return, I pick up my camera and it's as if I never left. I remember every detail from the first time I saw Tiny and photographed her. She was so striking and candid. The camera was meant for her and I knew it immediately. She was a star." Featured image captures Tiny with her mother, Pat, in 1993. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 12 in. / 176 pgs / 145 duotone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $50.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $60 ISBN: 9781597112628 PUBLISHER: Aperture AVAILABLE: 10/27/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not Available
Published by Aperture. Text by Isabel Allende, John Irving, Mary Ellen Mark, Martin Bell.
In 1988, Mary Ellen Mark published a poignant document of a fiercely independent group of homeless and troubled youth living in Seattle as pimps, prostitutes, panhandlers and small-time drug dealers. Critically acclaimed, Streetwise introduced us to individuals who were not easily forgotten, including "Tiny" (Erin Blackwell)--a 13-year-old prostitute with dreams of a horse farm, diamonds and furs, and a baby of her own. Since meeting Tiny 30 years ago, Mark has continued to photograph her, creating what has become one of Mark's most significant and long-term projects. Now 43, Tiny has ten children and her life has unfolded in unexpected ways, which together speak to issues of poverty, class, race and addiction. This significantly expanded iteration of the classic monograph presents the iconic work of the first edition along with Mark's moving and intimate body of work on Tiny, most of which is previously unpublished. Texts and captions are drawn from conversations between Tiny and Mary Ellen Mark as well as Mark's husband, the filmmaker Martin Bell, who made the landmark film, Streetwise. Tiny, Streetwise Revisited provides a powerful education about one of the more complex sides of American life, as well as insight into the unique relationship sustained between artist and subject for over 30 years.
Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015) was a legendary American photographer known for her photojournalism and portraiture. Her work has been widely published and is included in public collections around the world. In 2014, Mark received the George Eastman House Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award.
