In a new @elephantmagazine Snapshot feature, Alex Merola zooms in on a single photograph from Mary Ellen Mark's 1993 photobook, 'Indian Circus,' exploring the context of the image, the conditions it was created within and its wider cultural impact. This photograph is one of 562 b&w images included in Steidl's forthcoming 880-page, slipcased, clothbound, 3 volume set, "Mary Ellen Mark: The Book of Everything," edited by Martin Bell, Mark's husband.⠀ ⠀ Merola writes, "Throughout the course of her prolific career, Mark displayed an affinity for lives lived in society’s fringes; from the women of a psychiatric hospital in Oregon to Seattle’s runaway street kids. The latter, a 1983 LIFE magazine assignment, sparked a friendship with one its subjects, Tiny, which lasted until Mark’s death in 2015. With the Indian circuses, it should not be overlooked that their entanglement in grit, grace and poverty undoubtedly made for exotic content for a western audience. But what ultimately shines through is not only Mark’s documentary imperative to “give [the circus] the credit as an art form that it deserves,” but her personal attachment, too. “I feel very at home there,” she once reflected. “In a strange way, it’s where I belong.”⠀ ⠀ Read the full analysis via linkinbio.⠀ ⠀ @maryellenmarkfoundation #maryellenmark #indiancircus #alexmerola #bookofeverything https://www.instagram.com/p/CFPnaeqJsTM/?igshid=befu1du3uoxg
