I realized all of the possibilities that could exist for me with my camera: all of the images that I could capture, all of the lives I could enter, all of the people I could meet and how much I could learn from them.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
I would die if I had to be confined. I don't want to feel that I'm missing out on experiencing as much as I can. For me, experiencing is knowing people all over the world and being able to photograph.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of experiencing life fully and connecting with others.
Mary Ellen Mark expresses her belief that life is about freedom and the opportunities to connect with diverse people and cultures. She suggests that being confined is a form of suffering and that true fulfillment comes from experiencing life's richness through travel, relationships, and artistry, such as photography.
Themes
ExperienceFreedomTravelPhotographyConnection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can inspire others during a travel seminar to emphasize the value of exploration.
More from Mary Ellen Mark
All quotes →I think you have to have a real point of view that's your own. You have to tell it your way. And, I think that it's a mistake to shoot for a specific magazine's point of view because it's never going to be as good. You have to shoot for yourself and photograph [ the way] you believe it.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
As a kid, I used to dream about airplanes before I ever flew in one. I really knew, when I started photographing, I wanted it to be a way of knowing different cultures, not just in other countries but in this country, too, and I knew I wanted to enter other lives. I knew I wanted to be a voyeur.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
I think you reveal yourself by what you choose to photograph, but I prefer photographs that tell more about the subject. There's nothing much interesting to tell about me; what's interesting is the person I'm photographing, and that's what I try to show. [...] I think each photographer has a point of view and a way of looking at the world... that has to do with your subject matter and how you choose to present it. What's interesting is letting people tell you about themselves in the picture.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
I could spend my whole life photographing circuses. They combine everything I'm interested in - they're ironic, poetic, and corny at the same time. There's also something about a circus that's magical, sentimental, and almost tragic, like a Fellini film.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
I want my photographs not only to be real but to portray the essence of my subjects also. In order to do that, you have to be patient.
Mary Ellen MarkRead
Similar quotes
I make such big efforts to forget things and I can't tell the story of my life because, thank God, I'm still living it.
Karl LagerfeldRead
The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers those places regardless of distance or time.
Khalil GibranRead
But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight.
Ernest HemingwayRead
There's a trick to the Graceful Exit. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, a relationship is over - and to let go. It means leaving what's over without denying its value.
Ellen GoodmanRead
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.
Ronald ReaganRead
A single action can cause a life to veer off in a direction it was never meant to go. Falling in love can do that, you think. And so can a wild party. You marvel at the way each has the power to forever alter an individual's compass. And it is the knowing that such a thing can so easily happen, as you did not know before, not really, that has fundamentally changed you and your son.
Anita ShreveRead