Mary Ellen Mark achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as LIFE, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. For over five decades, she traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. 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.
Her exhibition in Sofia will present more than forty black and white photographs from “Streets of the Lost”, “Celebrities”, “Attitude” and “Indian Circus” series, as well Prom, Twins and Indian Circus/Amazing Plastic Lady documentary films.

Mary Ellen received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award from the George Eastman House as well as the Outstanding Contribution Photography Award from the World Photography Organisation. She has also received the Infinity Award for Journalism, an Erna & Victor Hasselblad Foundation Grant. Among her other awards are the Cornell Capa Award from the International Center of Photography, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, the Matrix Award for outstanding woman in the field of film/photography, and the Dr. Erich Salomon Award for outstanding merits in the field of journalistic photography. She was also presented with honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degrees from her Alma Mater, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of the Arts; three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Photographer of the Year Award from the Friends of Photography; the World Press Award for Outstanding Body of Work Throughout the Years; the Victor Hasselblad Cover Award; two Robert F. Kennedy Awards; and the Creative Arts Award Citation for Photography at Brandeis University. She also acted as the associate producer of the major motion picture, AMERICAN HEART (1992), directed by, Martin Bell.
Mary Ellen Mark participated in many international galleries and museum worldwide as; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), International Center of Photography, NY, MoCP – The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Kunsthal Rotterdam, FFI – Fotografie Forum international, Frankfurt/Main, etc.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Howard Greenberg’s Gallery (NY). Howard Greenberg is widely recognised as one of the most prominent gallerists and art dealers in the field of photography.

The exhibition is part of Masters of Photography – Edition IX is organised by MUSIZ Foundation, America for Bulgaria Foundation, in partnership with VIVACOM Art Hall and Sofia City Art Gallery, supported by Sofia Municipality.