Photographer Mary Ellen Mark spent 36 days living with patients at a high-security psychiatric hospital in Oregon.
Photographer’s Portraits of Women in a High-Security Psychiatric FacilityIn 1975, photographer Mary Ellen Mark was invited to document the movieshot on location at Oregon State Hospital. While there, Mark met the facility’s actual patients.
Oregon State Hospital in Salem hosted the state’s only locked, high-security psychiatric facility for women and after meeting some of the patients and their families, Mark was invited to move into the women’s ward for 36 days in 1976. Mark took with her Karen Folger Jabos; a collaborator, a writer, and a licensed therapist. During their five-week stay, the pair were given unprecedented access which resulted in a published book:The project is now being shown at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University where not only are Mark’s photographs on display but also audio recordings and archival material — many of which are available to the public for the first time.
“I wanted to help these women make contact with the outside world by letting them reach out and present themselves,” Mark said at the time.It was important to Mark that she didn’t sensationalize her subjects and was compassionate to their plight. “I wanted to do an essay on the personalities of people who are locked away — to show a little bit of what they’re like, especially the women. I didn’t want to show them as exotically crazy,” Mark told
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