Mary Ellen Mark

“There’s nothing much interesting to tell about me; what’s interesting is the person I’m photographing, and that’s what I try to show. … I think each photographer has a point of view and a way of looking at the world… that has to do with your subject matter and how you choose to present it. What’s interesting is letting people tell you about themselves in the picture.” — Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark’s photographs reveal her ability to convey with powerful insight the drama, the magic, and the tragedy of her subject’s lives. — Anne Havinga, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

MARY ELLEN MARK began photographing with a Brownie camera at age nine. In 1963 she was awarded a scholarship to the Annenberg School. From the moment she picked up an old Retina camera for her first school assignment, “I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be for the rest of my life.”

Mark’s images of our world’s diverse cultures are landmarks in the field of documentary photography, exhibited worldwide and published in over 16 books.

As in the academy award nominated film Streetwise, Mary Ellen has collaborated on her most recent book & exhibition project with her husband Martin Bell. Extraordinary Child features children at two specialized schools for the disabled in Reykjavik, and Bell’s film Alexander: Extraordinary Child, will be screened at this years Festival.

Mary Ellen’s numerous awards include the ICP Cornell Capa Award, three NEA grants, the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Infinity Award for Journalism, five honorary doctorates, and a Walter Annenberg Grant for her book and exhibition project on America.

Mary Ellen’s LOOK3 Exhibit at McGuffey Art Center: Prom

 

Joel-Peter Witkin

“History shows that only the artists who worked outside the parameters of established art, have, and will always make contributions to history.” — Joel-Peter Witkin

Joel-Peter Witkin knows that, contrary to popular wisdom, we are not rational creatures, but subject to our senses. He uses sight, our most privileged sense, to unnerve and instruct us. Witkin’s images do not merely shock, they enlighten, if only by forcing us to embrace what we’d rather leave unexamined.
— Catherine Edelman Gallery

JOEL-PETER WITKIN began making photographs at the age of sixteen with a twin lens camera. In the Army from 1961-64 he photographed accidents, maneuvers, and suicides. Returning to New York to work as an assistant, he received his BFA in sculpture from Cooper Union.

While pursuing graduate work at the University of New Mexico he developed intensive darkroom and finishing techniques in a relationship to the history of painting and sculpture. With his unique vision Witkin fashions works that “confront our sense of normalcy and decency, while constantly examining the teachings handed down through Christianity.”

Among his awards are two Ford Foundation and four N.E.A grants, the ICP Award for Visual Arts, and the Commander de L’Order des Artes et des Lettres. His work is collected globally, including the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY.

LOOK3 Exhibit at Second Street Gallery: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

 

James Nachtwey

“I am a witness and I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored. I also want it to be powerful and eloquent and do justice to the people I’m photographing.” — James Nachtwey

Along with bravery and perseverance, Mr. Nachtwey’s pictorial virtue makes him a model war photographer. He doesn’t mix up his priorities. His goal is to bear witness, because somebody must, and his pictures, devised to infuriate and move people to action, are finally about us, and our concern or lack of it, at least as much they are about him and his obvious talents. — Michael Kimmelman, NY Times

JAMES NACHTWEY decided to teach himself photography after seeing images from Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. After graduating from Dartmouth he worked as a truck driver and on merchant ships, acquiring skills that would prove useful in his chosen occupation. After working as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, he moved to New York in 1980.

He has been a contract photographer with Time Magazine since 1984, was a member of Magnum from 1986 – 2001, and is one of the founding members of the photo agency, VII. David Reiff of the L.A. Times called his book Inferno “not just a moral triumph but an aesthetic one.” In 2007 Nachtwey was one of three winners of the TED Prize, an award “dedicated to ideas worth spreading”.

Nachtwey’s work has been exhibited internationally, and his numerous honors include the Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times), the ICP Infinity Award (three times), and the Martin Luther King Award.

James Nachtwey’s LOOK3 Exhibit at Les Yeux du Monde: The Unvanquished