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Mark, Mary Ellen : Falkland Road: Prostitutes Of Bombay

Gerhard Steidl Druckerei Und Verlag, Gottingen, Germany, 2005

ISBN 3865211283

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 124 pages. New And Expanded Edition of the photographer's classic. The First Edition Thus. Published in a small and limited print run of 1500 copies that sold out shortly after publication. Mark stated that the book is vastly superior in terms of production values to the original. The First Edition Thus is now scarce. A brilliant production by Mary Ellen Mark and Diana Hass: Oversize-volume format. Blue cloth boards with metallic-silver titles embossed on spine, as issued. Photographs and text by Mary Ellen Mark. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper by Steidl in Gottingen, Germany to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. In pictorial DJ, with a portrait of "Putla" on the cover, and titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Re-presents, in a new and definitive edition, Mary Ellen Mark's "Falkland Road". A heartbreakingly beautiful book. The unflinching photographs that Mary Ellen Mark took of Falkland Road in Bombay (between October 1978 and January 1979), finally presented in the right size as well as the warm and vivid colors she sought, a major inadequacy of the original edition. The photographs' fine nuances were lost in the latter, which was unquestionably ground-breaking, but could have been printed better. Falkland Road is a microcosm of India, without the pomp and circumstance, without The Rich and Powerful. Mary Ellen Mark's identification with her subjects is absolute and unconditional. These are the only Indians she cared to know, and it took her ten years of annual visits to earn their trust before they finally permitted her to take pictures. The prostitutes are women as young as thirteen as well as stunningly beautiful "transvestites" (since they all have full-grown breasts and other body modifications, they would be called "transgender" today). Many of them did not choose to become prostitutes. They were sold off by their parents or forced into prostitution by abject poverty. They could also have left, escaped, or gone back to the rural village they called home. So why remain a prostitute? "Given the choice, I would rather have stayed in my village. But if I stayed there, I would never have known what I missed" is the complex and eloquent answer one of them gives. When the time came for Mary Ellen Mark to say goodbye, she began to cry. "You shouldn't weep. You should say goodbye with your head up and proud and then leave. You'd better not forget me" is the admonition she gets. Mary Ellen Mark died on May 25, 2015, Memorial Day, at the age of 75. An absolute "must-have" title for Mary Ellen Mark collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black pen-marker on the title page by Mary Ellen Mark. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a great photography book. This is one of few such signed copies of the New And Expanded Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies of the 1981 First Edition available online command between $500 and $1000 depending on condition. Apart from the fact that this is an infinitely superior production (according to Mary Ellen Mark herself), this is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare signed copy thus. 65 color plates. Voted by American Photo Magazine as the most important and most influential female photographer of all time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER MARY ELLEN MARK TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 3865211283.

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