Mary Ellen Mark took these images 45 years ago, when strict standards for privacy and photographing vulnerable people, particularly children, did not exist as they do today.

Meredith Lue, president of the Mary Ellen Mark Foundation told CNN via video call that the photographer, who experienced a challenging family life in her youth, found herself gravitating toward — and connecting with — people in vulnerable situations.

The night before starting her six-week-long assignment for GEO magazine (a German monthly much like National Geographic), she had a dream in which she was a voyeur hiding behind a bed, watching three sex workers make love.

Her closest confidante in the community was a trans madam named Champa, who introduced Mark to the sex workers at their brothel, many of them eunuchs, who allowed her to photograph them putting on makeup and getting ready for the evening.

The most challenging group to befriend were the “cage girls” — women put on display on Falkland Road in small roadside rooms with window bars who suffered frequent abuse and ridicule, often from the customers they were tasked with luring.

(After Mark and her husband, American documentary filmmaker Martin Bell, returned to Mumbai years later to show the woman the book, she appeared frail due to what they believed to be AIDS.

  • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    the summary does not do this article justice. tfa is a really good read.

    • n7gifmdnOP
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      5 months ago

      Not that anyone cares, but I updated the description with that of the TL:DR Bot

      • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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        5 months ago

        don’t sell your post short. many more people than you might think do an all/new when looking for lemmy posts.

        its an excellent article and a great post. I am sure its been seen by a good number of eyes. thank you for posting this.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Editor’s Note: Mary Ellen Mark took these images 45 years ago, when strict standards for privacy and photographing vulnerable people, particularly children, did not exist as they do today.

    Meredith Lue, president of the Mary Ellen Mark Foundation told CNN via video call that the photographer, who experienced a challenging family life in her youth, found herself gravitating toward — and connecting with — people in vulnerable situations.

    The night before starting her six-week-long assignment for GEO magazine (a German monthly much like National Geographic), she had a dream in which she was a voyeur hiding behind a bed, watching three sex workers make love.

    Her closest confidante in the community was a trans madam named Champa, who introduced Mark to the sex workers at their brothel, many of them eunuchs, who allowed her to photograph them putting on makeup and getting ready for the evening.

    The most challenging group to befriend were the “cage girls” — women put on display on Falkland Road in small roadside rooms with window bars who suffered frequent abuse and ridicule, often from the customers they were tasked with luring.

    (After Mark and her husband, American documentary filmmaker Martin Bell, returned to Mumbai years later to show the woman the book, she appeared frail due to what they believed to be AIDS.


    The original article contains 1,968 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 89%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

      • n7gifmdnOP
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        5 months ago

        @[email protected]. I went ahead and edited my OP to use the Archive.org link to the same content. I didn’t see any ads on this, but then again I am using uBlockOrigin so there are often ads that I don’t see.

        • qprimed@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          yup, no-script and selective temp. allowing of select domains make the article ad free for me. ublockorigin is also excellent.