| |
|
|
 (Click for larger image) 
Mark, Mary Ellen.
TWINS: PHOTOGRAPHS AND INTERVIEWS BY MARY ELLEN MARK.
New York City, NY:
Aperture Foundation,
2003.
Hardcover.
First Edition/First Printing.
96 pages.
As New/As New.
Signed. The photographer's ninth collection. Originally appeared as the Special Section of The New Yorker's "Family Issue" 2003. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with the subsequent paperback edition. An austerely elegant production by Wendy Byrne: Oversize-volume format. Mustard silk cloth boards with deep-gray titles embossed on spine, as issued. Photographs, Foreword, and Interviews of the twins conducted, transcribed, and excerpted by Mary Ellen Mark. Printed and bound in Germany to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents black-and-white photographs of the subject, which the great photographer took in 2001 and 2002 in Twinsburg, Ohio, the site of America's "Twins Day", the biggest and most important annual gathering of twins in the country. By her own admission, Mark needs to fall in love with her subjects before she could take even one picture of them. Apparently, her love affair with twins has been a lifelong one: "I've always been fascinated by twins. In my forty years of photographing, whenever there was an opportunity, I would take a picture of twins. I found the notion that two people could look exactly alike very compelling. It was like seeing double and I felt somewhat isolated not being a twin. I remember thinking how bizarre it was to be surrounded by non-twins" (Mary Ellen Mark). After taking the pictures, Mark then got in touch with the subjects again and interviewed them: "I found the process of interviewing the twins almost as interesting as taking their pictures. People described the wonderful as well as painful things about being twins. The crazy moments, the embarrassing moments, and the fights, as well as the great love they share with each other. I was deeply touched at how willing all of the twins were to open up their lives and hearts to me". Not surprisingly, there is not one mention in the book of the other great photographer who was just as fascinated by twins, Diane Arbus, whose book, "Diane Arbus", shows twin girls on the cover. Arbus thought of twins as the dark, haunting, and unassimilable Other. Mary Ellen Mark, a humanist, thinks the exact opposite, turns on the light, and sees that they are just the simply wonderful Two of Us. A lovely book. A "must-have" title for Mary Ellen Mark collectors. This copy is boldly and beautifully signed in black marker on the title page by Mary Ellen Mark. This is one of very few signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition still available online and has no flaws, a pristine beauty. Copies command as much as $250. A scarce signed copy thus. 80 tritone plates. Voted by American Photo Magazine as the most important and most influential female photographer of all time. One of the finest living photographers. A flawless collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MARY ELLEN MARK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1931788197. $150.00 |
