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The Image Centre to showcase unflinching and compassionate photography exhibit

Ward 81 by Mary Ellen Mark sheds light on the invisible lives of women institutionalized for mental illness
By: Jess Leach
November 24, 2022
A woman and man dance.

Mary Ellen Mark is one of America’s most distinguished and respected photographers. A new showcase of her work will be at The Image Centre in the new year.  Mary Ellen Mark, [Mary Iris Dancing, Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, USA], 1976, gelatin silver print © Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

This winter, visitors to The Image Centre (IMC) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are invited to experience life in the women's ward of the Oregon State Hospital, the state's only locked, high security psychiatric facility at the time. 

On view from January 25 through April 1, 2023, Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81 (external link)  presents photographs, audio recordings and archival materials—many of which are being shown for the first time—to offer an in-depth view of Mark’s experimental and groundbreaking approach to documentary photography.

Mark, who died in 2015, was an American documentary photographer known for transporting her viewers to places rarely seen, from the brothels and circuses of India to the streets of Seattle. 

“Mary Ellen Mark’s willingness to immerse herself in her subjects’ lives and to show them empathy, care and dedication allowed her to create extraordinary portraits that were also candid and relatable,” said Gaëlle Morel, IMC exhibition curator. 

“Mark’s Ward 81 photographs are striking black-and-white images with an almost cinematic quality, and these will be shown alongside many of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ materials that offer a fuller picture of the project.”

Mark first met several of the female residents of Ward 81 in 1975 while photographing on the set of the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Oregon State Hospital. After nearly a year of correspondence with the institution, as well as the patients and their families, Mark and her collaborator, licensed therapist and writer Karen Folger Jacobs, moved into the women’s ward for 36 days in 1976. They were given unprecedented access. The resulting project—published as the seminal book Ward 81 in 1978—was a nuanced and compelling portrayal of female psychiatric treatment in the United States.

Two women in bathing suits stand in a shower.

Mary Ellen Mark, [Mona and Beth in the Shower, Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital, Salem, Oregon, USA], 1976, gelatin silver print © Mary Ellen Mark, courtesy of The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation/Howard Greenberg Gallery

Through photography and recorded interviews, Mark and Jacobs hoped to portray the women of Ward 81 as complex individuals with multifaceted personalities, bringing attention to their daily life, their private thoughts, intimate interactions, and intense medical treatments.

Mark and Jacobs brought a Polaroid camera to the hospital, empowering the residents to produce images of each other as well as of the visiting photographer and writer. A tape recorder was also left in the communal space in Ward 81 for the patients to record anything they wanted to share.

The exhibition at the IMC, like Mark’s project, insists on the individuality of the women and their distinctive voices. The residents of Ward 81 are introduced one-by-one through groupings of photographs that portray their daily lives and highlight their personalities. Quotations from the residents further emphasize their presence in the space.

Archival materials on display include signed patient waivers, contact sheets, press coverage, the collaborative Polaroids, as well as letters, drawings, and cards made by the women. Also on view is Moonlight Heaven Black (2022), a new film by Mark's husband, the filmmaker Martin Bell, which features images and audio recordings made by Jacobs, Mark, and the residents of Ward 81.

Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81 is curated by the IMC’s Gaëlle Morel and Kaitlin Booher, Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition is organized by The Image Centre, in collaboration with Falkland Road Inc./The Mary Ellen Mark Foundation.

Opening alongside Mary Ellen Mark: Ward 81 at the IMC are:

For more information visit The Image Centre website (external link) 

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