Streetwise

by Mary Ellen Mark

Gathers photographs of runaway children living in the streets of Seattle and includes their comments on how they live

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art, Abuse

75 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

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.

Reviews

[Lisa]

The Wikipedia article Streetwise (1984 film) includes links to the LIFE magazine article that began this project, the writer's website (which includes the preface and postscript to the story, and the film's transcript), and links to other relevant media about the film and cast.

In a May 2013 interview, Veena Sud stated her inspiration for The Killing season 3 came from Streetwise, Mary Ellen Mark's book of photographs about teenaged runaways in Seattle[36] that was made into an eponymous 1984 documentary.[37] One of the street kids Mark documented in that and later books (21-year-old Roberta Joseph Hayes), fell victim to The Green River Killer (Gary Ridgway)[22] ; Sud also stated being "very fascinated" with Ridgway, the serial killer of numerous females near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington in the 1980s and 1990s. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Rid...)

[Aaron the Pink Donut · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the expanded collect photo essay about homeless teenagers in downtown Seattle in the early 80’s. The early parts of this volume are reprinted from the Life magazine article from 1984. This book is really a companion to the Film documentary of the same name. The bulk of the photos are stills from the film. There is a nice-if not very short update (as of 1988) of how the core kids they followed where doing. Well worth checking out.

[Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the photo-essay from which Mary Ellen Mark's documentary "Streetwise" evolved. If you haven't seen "Streetwise," you must -- it may well be the best documentary you'll ever see. It's about the lives of Seattle street children in the early eighties. Unforgettable, and unlike any of the other bathetic kids-in-crisis flicks that followed it.

[Ashley H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Disturbing.