George Krause and Mary Ellen Mark

George Krause

When I began to look through the photographs that George Krause took,  I began to notice that much of his work is very similar.  I noticed that he does many portraits, and in these portraits he used almost the exact same lighting in each and every photograph.  Although this method makes it easy to identify a George Krause portrait, to me, it does not seem to fit each person that is photographed.  For instance,  in the portraits below we see on the top, a  young woman and on the bottom a working man.  These two people I'm sure have very different personalities and different lifestyles, and yet he chose to use the same high-key lighting for both people in his photographs.  As much as I have to respect Krause as a photographer, I do not like the idea of using the same lighting to portray two completely different people.  Reasonable people could disagree, but that is my opinion.

___________________________________________________________________________

Mary Ellen Mark

After looking through the photos by George Krause, Mary Ellen Mark's work was a breath of fresh air.  I immediately started to notice that her goal as a photographer was to capture the essence of humanity and portray people as they truly are.  Also, I noticed that she was a master of the controversial.  Some of my favorite photographs of hers are also probably the most controversial. I've included an example below of a photo in which most of the general public would be disgusted, but rather, I am intrigued.  What would spur a photographer to photograph a young girl smoking?  This is the question I asked myself.  But, many other questions may be asked of this photograph.  It is extraordinary to me that this photograph includes two children, not sitting on the porch or on the couch, but rather, in a kiddie pool.  This photograph is not about an image on paper.  This image is telling a story.  Perhaps, a story of a very troubled family is being told.  Or, we could be witnessing a young girl that wants to be just like her mom and dad and thought it would be funny to pose like her parents.  Either way,  this image gives us much to think about and Mark Ellen Mark knew this would be the case. Her thirst for the controversial is extremely evident.