Seen Behind the Scene

Since the 1960s Mary Ellen Mark has worked on over 100 film sets as what the film studios call a 'special stills photographer', making thousands of documentary photographs of life behind the scenes, rather than the conventional still photographs made of actors on camera. This exciting book presents the best of her images ranging from the first films that Mark shot in the 1960s such as Fellini's Satyricon, to legendary 1970s productions like Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as well as films from the ensuing decades that range from Network to Tootsie, from Gandhi to Showgirls. She continues to work on film sets and over the last decade has photographed recent Oscar-winning productions such as Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel and Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd.Over her career, Mark has been given unprecedented access to the film sets she has worked on, roaming freely among cast and directors, and photographing in make-up, during rehearsals, on the set and off the set to provide a full picture of life behind the scenes. Her experience over the last forty years reveals much about the changes in film-making. She recalls in her introduction how she loved to photograph the director's reaction and interaction during rehearsal when he was behind the camera; but now in contemporary film-making the director is nowhere near the camera, but rather in front of a video monitor away from the set. Her iconic 1960s portraits of Fellini behind his camera fix this moment in film history and are evidence of the changes in technology.Mark's 1960s, 1970s and 1980s portraits also reveal the changing nature of celebrity. When she first started working she would be just another person on set with full access to every cast member and every set. Now with the massive power and impact of celebrity it has become more difficult for photographers to work on set,