Once i attended a lecture by Mary Ellen Mark, who for an eternity was derided by the fine art establishment for various reasons. I thought it was going to be an earth shattering and momentous event, a chance to meet a childhood hero in person and i had hoped to learn something i did not know, something that would change the course of my life. In fact, i had misplaced my copy of American Odyssey that i so wanted to have signed, in person that i rush ordered another copy when i could not find it in time for the lecture.
I guess the reason that Mark was so derided by the fine art world was her touch with journalism, editorials and even some corny schmalz that came out of her collaborations with her husband and streetwise/twins etc. Ironically, the same derision was pointed at Anny Leibowitz. It was hard not to consider these emotions and antics are were in no small part the reaction of a patriarchal world and industry towards two exceptionally talented and supremely successful female photographers, who never shied away from the fact they are strong women making waves in a male dominated environment.
The lecture went about as one would expect from this type of event, the usual introductions followed by the usual barrage of anecdotal behind the scene tidbits that by now ever person in the audience probably knew by heart. Some of the usual photos and stories. Then your typical Q&A, from young and old. The old asking what lessons for life are there in a life long dedicated pursuit of a single motivational goal (answer: there isent any), the young asking what room is there in the world for up and coming photographers and how they too could achieve such levels of success (the answer: there is no more room, that world has come and gone for good).
Then, there was some spread with cheese an drinks to mingle. I thought to myself, well, now is surely the chance to introduce myself, to have the book signed and to mention the life impact her work had on my career and life path.
To put this into context, about a decade earlier, i was already a working photojournalist for a daily newspaper covering spot news when i ran into another photographer, whom i have only ever heard of and saw the work of and whos ground breaking work i saw as a kid was one of the major driving forces that pushed towards photography and journalism. In passing i mentioned that it was his work and in particular one photo that had brought me to where i was. He immediately responded by saying "dont lay that responsibility on me, i dont want it". He ended up being a bit of an unpleasant person in general thought perhaps not a fair judgment as spot news in a flashpoint area that was constantly at the peak of the global news cycle makes people jaded and rough on the outside, its hard to survive otherwise. Still, i thought i had a met my childhood hero, he listened to my words and i learned something, not a bad exchange, even if not what i thought it would be like. We ended up working side by side on other occasions and it was hard to comprehend we were in fact, colleagues doing the same work at the same time.
So, armed with this past experience, i figured i shouldent expect too much from a 15 seconds conversation with Mary Ellen Mark and just add this to the book of experiences i can once tell some poor sucker about, hey, you know, i once met Mary Ellen Mark, or something like that. An indeed, a few minutes later, thats exactly what happened. We exchanged some pleasantries, had my book signed and the next person in line, anxiously waiting to tell Mark how much they admire her, inspired by her or ask massively open ended questions that a lifetime of therapy might not answer expecting to be wowzed out of their socks moved in.
For many years the main ad on the Kodak website for the "new Tri-X professional" film was promoted by none other than Mary Ellen Mark with some photo of buffalos or some such with a quote from Mark saying something like: i love Tri-X 400, its an amazing film especially when you shoot it at 250 ISO.