Character Project: Characters Welcome USA

by Mary Ellen Mark, Richard Renaldi, Sylvia Plachy

A promotional booklet issued to announce the Character Project and introduce the photographers who participated. Character Project is "an ongoing artistic initiative to celebrate the extraordinary people, from all walks of life, who make this country unique. USA assembled a team of 11 world-class photographers to capture the character of America during the summer of 2008." The photographers, each of whom has written a one-page artist's statement and who is represented by a sample of their work, Dawoud Bey; Anna Mia Davidson; Jeff Dunas; David Eustace; Joe Fornabaio; Mary Ellen Mark; Eric McNatt; Eric Ogden; Sylvia Plachy; Richard Renaldi; and Marla Rutherford. The subjects Renaldi's photos of fishermen in Alaska; Davidson's organic farmers in the Pacific Northwest; summer parades in NYC by Mark; the life of Columbia College students in Chicago by Bey; Eustace's portraits of men and women he found along U.S. 50; musicians of Michigan by Ogden; and beauty queens of Texas by McNatt. An exhibition toured the US in 2009. Staple-bound card covers; 16 pages; color photos throughout; 10 x 4.5 inches.

16 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2009

About the author

Mary Ellen Mark, born 1940, has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She is a contributing photographer to The New Yorker and has published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as Life, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. For over four decades, she has travelled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Today, she is recognized as one of our most respected and influential photographers. Her images of our world's diverse cultures have become landmarks in the field of documentary photography. Her portrayals of Mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothels in Bombay were the product of many years of work in India. A photo essay on runaway children in Seattle became the basis of the academy award nominated film STREETWISE, directed and photographed by her husband, Martin Bell.