Mary Ellen Mark / Karen Folger Jacobs: Ward 81: Voices
About The Book
Ward 81, photographed in 1976, was Mary Ellen Mark’s first independent long-term project. Mark and writer Karen Folger Jacobs set out to document the lives of the women in this locked ward at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem—the only one in the state. Every day for five weeks, Mark photographed and Jacobs interviewed the women on Ward 81. At night they slept in an empty adjacent ward.
Ward 81: Voices, an expanded edition of the original 1979 book, includes previously unpublished photographs, excerpts from interviews with patients and recorded conversations between Mark and Jacobs, as well as new essays examining the influence of their project. Publisher’s Info
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About The Artist
The images of Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) are icons of documentary and humanistic photography. Mark’s more than 20 books include Passport (1974), Falkland Road (1981) and Indian Circus (1993). Her 2015 book Tiny: Streetwise Revisited is a culmination of 32 years documenting Erin Blackwell (Tiny), who featured in Martin Bell’s 1985 film Streetwise and Mark’s 1988 book of the same name.
A dedicated social documentarian and portraitist, she often turned her lens to marginalized communities – circus performers in India, street children in Seattle, the patients of Ward 81, and many others – invariably connecting profoundly with her subjects. Mark’s work has been exhibited and published in magazines worldwide.
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About The Publisher
Born in Göttingen in 1950, Gerhard Steidl began working as a printer and designer in 1969. Soon the customers of his screen-printing workshop included Joseph Beuys, Marcel Broodthaers and Nam June Paik, among other well-known artists. In 1972, the first Steidl book Befragung der documenta (Questioning documenta) was published. From political non-fiction he then expanded into literature and selected books on art and photography.
In 1994 Steidl launched its international photobook program. Today it includes some of the world’s most renowned photographers and artists including Joel Sternfeld, Bruce Davidson, Robert Frank, Robert Adams, Karl Lagerfeld, Lewis Baltz, Dayanita Singh, Ed Ruscha, Roni Horn and Juergen Teller, to name but a few.
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Specifics
Ward 81 Voices by Mary Ellen Mark / Karen Folger Jacobs published by Steidl 01 / 2023. Edited by Martin Bell, Julia Bezgin and Meredith Lue. 288 pages with 141 images. Hardback / Clothbound. 30.5 x 30.5 cm. ISBN 978-3-96999-013-1. Link.
