Mark, Ward 81
Mark, Ward 81
|
Mark, Mary Ellen. Ward 81. Photographs. Text by Karen Folger Jacobs. With an introduction by Milos Forman. Designed by Arne Lewis. New York, Simon and Schuster (1979). Quer-8° (20 x 28 cm.).. 96 p. with 82 duotone plates. Illustrated original cardboard softcover. Koetzle, Fotografen A-Z 253. Lederman/Yatskevitch, What they saw 255. – First edition. – „In February 1975, photographer Mary Elen Mark and writer and social scientist Karen Folger Jacobs were given permission to live on Ward 81, the women’s security ward of the Oregon State Hospital. During their thirty-sixday stay, Mark photographed, and Jacobs interviewed the ward’s residents, women deemed highly disturbed and a danger to themselves and others. Purposely choosing not to review case files before their visit, Jacobs and Mark interacted with the patients in their daily routines. They were less interested in documenting their mental illness than learning about the women themselves. The resulting book, Ward 81, portrays the women, their mental illness’ contradictions and the institutional response to their treatment and care. Mark first learned of the Oregon State Hospital and the women in Ward 81 in 1974 when she was sent to photograph the cast on the set of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Milos Forman’s 1975 film based on Ken Kesey’s novel about patients in a psychiatric hospital. She vowed to return, and after a year-long request process, she and Jacobs installed themse Ives in the ward. The impact of their time on the ward was significant, with Jacobs stating in the book’s epilogue, „We felt the degeneration of our own bodies and the erosion of our self-confidence. We were horrified at the thought of what we might become after a year or two of confinement and therapy on Ward 81.“ The book contains eighty-two black-and white photographs, with an essay by Jacobs serving as an introduction to the visual flow. In it, she notes that women captured in Mark’s photographs could be in almost any institutional setting, but closer examination reveals their scars and signs of physical abuse, often self-inflicted“ (C. M. Riley in Lederman/Yatskevitch). – A very fine copy.
Unser Preis: EUR 240,-- |