05 Aug Mary Ellen Mark: Indian Circus
Acrobats Practicing at Famous Circus, Calcutta, 1989 from Indian Circus, 1989, ©Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery
INDIAN CIRCUS
BY MARY ELLEN MARK
Indian Circus highlights Mary Ellen Mark’s enduring influence on documentary photography through an intimate body of work shaped by trust, observation, and her commitment to photographing people on the margins.
September 25 – November 14, 2026
COLORADO PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS CENTER
1200 LINCOLN ST, DENVER, CO 80203
Art exhibit viewing times: Tues. – Fri. (11 am – 5 pm); Sat. (noon – 4 pm)
RECEPTION & SPECIAL PROGRAMMING:
OCTOBER 1, 17, & 27
Public Reception:
Thursday, October 1, from 5 – 8 pm at CPAC. This event is free and open to the public, with light refreshments provided.
Books Available for Purchase:
Copies of Photofile: Mary Ellen Mark (2024, Thames & Hudson, London) will be available for purchase at the event and throughout the duration of the exhibition. The book features 68 photographs offering an overview of Mark’s remarkable career.
In-Person Panel Discussion:
Join us Tuesday, October 27 at 5:30 pm for an in-person panel discussion in the gallery examining the ethics of representation in documentary photography. Inspired by Mary Ellen Mark’s Indian Circus, photographer Ron Cooper and multidisciplinary artist Bala Thiagarajan will join CPAC Executive Director & Curator Samantha Johnston for a conversation about how photographers represent people, places, and communities—and the responsibilities that come with that work.
Drop-In Writing with Lighthouse:
Find inspiration in photography and writing during this creative workshop presented in partnership with Lighthouse Writers Workshop on Saturday, October 17, from 10 am – 12 pm. After spending time with Mary Ellen Mark’s Indian Circus in the gallery, participants will respond through guided writing prompts designed to spark reflection, memory, image-making, and storytelling. Cost is $10 and space is limited. Register.
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
“From my earliest days as a photographer, many of my subjects have been on the edge of, or outside, the mainstream of our culture. Some of them were pushed over the edge due to painful circumstances, and some of them managed to survive even with the most unspeakable and unjust obstacles placed in their lives. I’ve always tried to let my photographs be a voice for people who have less of an opportunity to speak for themselves.” — Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015) is regarded as one of the leading documentary photographers of her generation. Over five decades, she photographed people whose lives and circumstances differed profoundly from her own. Her work was shaped by long periods of observation and by the relationships she built with the people she photographed. Mark believed that photographs always express a point of view, and that a photographer’s way of seeing is important to creating a great photograph.
Indian Circus grew from Mark’s enduring relationship with India. After first traveling there in 1969, she returned repeatedly over the next twenty years. In 1989, supported by grants from the Eastman Kodak Company and the National Endowment for the Arts, she spent six months traveling with eighteen circus companies. Gaining access depended on earning the trust of circus owners in a profession where touring routes and daily life were closely guarded.
Rather than photographing the performance itself, Mark focused on rehearsals, work, and the moments between. Her photographs reveal the circus as a community shaped by the lives of its performers, children, and animals. Mark described the Indian circus as “a metaphor for everything that has always fascinated me visually,” documenting a way of life that was already beginning to disappear.
Mark wanted her photographs to be understood across cultures without telling viewers what to think. This approach is central to Indian Circus, where the photographs are grounded in time spent with her subjects and in her belief that documentary photography is shaped not by detachment, but by engagement.
In presenting the first solo exhibition of Mary Ellen Mark’s work in Colorado, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center is proud to share this important body of work with new audiences and honor an artist whose approach to documentary photography continues to influence photographers today.
— Samantha Johnston, CPAC Executive Director & Curator
Exhibition support provided by Charles Cannon and Laurie Baxter.
PREVIEW OF INDIAN CIRCUS
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
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.
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, and a Walter Annenberg Grant for her book and exhibition project on AMERICA. 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 published twenty books including Passport (Lustrum Press, 1974), Ward 81 (Simon & Schuster, 1979), Falkland Road (Knopf, 1981), Mother Teresa’s Mission of Charity in Calcutta (Friends of Photography, 1985), The Photo Essay: Photographers at work (A Smithsonian series), Streetwise (second printing, Aperture, 1992), Mary Ellen Mark: 25 Years (Bulfinch, 1991), Indian Circus,(Chronicle, 1993 and Takarajimasha Inc., 1993), Portraits (Motta Fotografica, 1995 and Smithsonian, 1997), a Cry for Help (Simon & Schuster, 1996), Mary Ellen Mark: American Odyssey (Aperture, 1999), Mary Ellen Mark 55 (Phaidon, 2001), Photo Poche: Mary Ellen Mark (Nathan, 2002), Twins (Aperture, 2003), Exposure (Phaidon, 2005), Extraordinary Child (The National Museum of Iceland, 2007), Seen Behind the Scene (Phaidon, 2009), Prom (Getty, 2012,) Man and Beast (University of Texas Press, 2014,) Tiny: Streetwise revisited (Aperture, 2015,) and Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait and the Moment (Aperture, 2015.) Mark’s photographs have been exhibited worldwide.
She also acted as the associate producer of the major motion picture, AMERICAN HEART (1992), directed by, Martin Bell.
Her last book “Tiny: Streetwise Revisited” is a culmination of 32 years documenting Erin Blackwell, who she first met in 1983 on assignment for LIFE magazine. Erin was the subject of both the book and film “Streetwise.” Martin also made an updated film, “TINY: The Life of Erin Blackwell.”
Aside from her book and magazine work, Mark photographed advertising campaigns among which are Barnes and Noble, British Levis, Coach Bags, Eileen Fisher, Hasselblad, Heineken, Keds, Mass Mutual, Nissan, and Patek Philippe.