mary ellen mark | bury my heart next to your soul

I think all my life, I have been influenced by the sounds that Mary Ellen Mark's work has made on my soul. They play a tune like no other. They are simultaneously soft and loud, inviting but disarming. Raw and intimate.

I think each of us in this group had such a difficult time replicating her vision --you just can't. And there was absolutely no way we could actually mount a project such as she did in such a short amount of time. But in revisiting her work, I realize how much the work I produce, or should I say my work within my work, is influenced by her. When I think of photographers who deeply move me, I always think of Sally Mann. But it has been quite an awakening to go back over my own work, the images I am drawn too, looking at the dusty projects I have been sitting on, afraid to dive into and realize how sonorous Mary Ellne Mark's vision has been in my own life.

Here are a smattering of photos that I took of a family I deeply care for. I am not sure if they are exactly the song of Mary Ellen Mark, but I felt that it was, for now, the best that I could do.