Mary Ellen Mark
Ward 81
September 8 – October 6, 2007
Stephen Bulger Gallery
1026 Queen St W
Toronto
416-504-0575
In conjunction with the exhibition of Mary Ellen Mark’s series Ward 81, there are two special events:
Ryerson Kodak Lecture: Mary Ellen Mark
Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 7pm
Location: Ryerson, L-72. limited seating, first come first served.
Free Saturday afternoon film screenings at CAMERA (located at 1028 Queen Street
West) 1pm and 3pm, every Saturday from September 8 – October 6th.
The gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of work by Mary Ellen Mark in Canada. Since the early 1970’s, Mark has traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Today, she is recognized as one of our most respected and influential photographers. Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Mark’s portrayals of Mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothels in Bombay were the product of many years of work in India. Moreover, Mark’s photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the basis of the academy award nominated film Streetwise (1985), with her husband, Martin Bell, as director and cinematographer.
Our exhibition, Ward 81, will showcase work from one of Mark’s earliest series. In 1975, she was assigned by a magazine to do a story on the making of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), which was shot on location at the Oregon State Hospital. While there, she briefly got to know the women of Ward 81.
Ward 81 is the women's security ward of the hospital and is the only locked ward for women in the state. The women on this ward are considered either dangerous to themselves or to others.
In February of 1976, Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs, a writer and social scientist, were given permission to live on the ward in order to photograph and interview the women. They spent thirty-six days on Ward 81. A monograph of this work was published by Simon and Schuster in 1979.
In 2005, Phaidon released Mark’s 15th book, Exposure, which was a compendium of her iconic portraits of America. She has exhibited internationally for over 4 decades and her work is found in the permanent collections of most major institutions. Amongst her many awards and grants, she has been the recipient of: the Cornell Capa Award from the International Center of Photography; the Infinity Award for Journalism; an Erna & Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship; and the Dr. Erich Salomon Award for outstanding merits in the field of journalistic photography.
