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Mary Ellen Mark has worked on over a hundred film sets since 1968, including such legendary productions asApocalypse Now,One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s NestandGandhi, as well as recent Oscar-winning productions such asMoulin Rouge,BabelandSweeney Toddamong many others. Mark’s film photographs are a rare archive as she is afforded unprecedented access to the actors and the set permitted for weeks at a time to roam freely. Mark is one of the most talented photojournalists working today and her unique ability to capture gesture and expression enables her to fully reveal the story of life on set.

In photographs that range from dramatic moments of Federico Fellini at work onSatyricon, to the well-known pranksters Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman fooling around on set, from Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt rehearsing on set in Morocco for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’sBabel,to Johnny Depp in make-up for Tim Burton’sSweeney Todd, we are given access to unguarded moments in filmmaking and to this rarely-seen world. Some of the film industry’s best-known figures have also contributed their own anecdotes of life on set including tales ofgrowing up on set by Sofia Coppola, of the disconcerting experience of night shoots by Helen Mirren, and the work that goes into ‘getting that take’ fromCatch 22director Mike Nichols. This is a backstage pass to the most famous film sets in history through the lens of an iconic photographer, sure to appeal to film and photography enthusiasts or to anyone who ever wondered just what happens behind the scenes.

The author

American photographer Mary Ellen Mark is one of the most prominent and provocative documentary photographers working today. Her pictures are a celebration of humanity in its most diverse and eccentric forms children yearning for adulthood, the poor and the destitute are some of her recurring themes. She has received an impressive number of awards and grants for her work, including three National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and five honorary doctorates.

Hardcover,11 3/8 x 8 3/8 in., 264pages