Mary Ellen Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs: Ward 81: Voices - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Mark's classic account of a women's locked ward, featuring additional photographs and documentation

Photographed in 1976, Ward 81 was Mary Ellen Mark's (1940-2015) first independent long-term project. Mark and writer Karen Folger Jacobs (born 1940) set out to document the lives of the women in this locked ward at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem--the only one in the state. Every day for five weeks, Mark photographed and Jacobs interviewed the women on Ward 81. At night they slept in an empty adjacent ward.
Ward 81: Voices, an expanded edition of the original 1979 book, includes previously unpublished photographs, excerpts from interviews with patients and recorded conversations between Mark and Jacobs, as well as new essays examining the influence of their project. Ward 81 has always been considered one of the best examples of Mark's ability to portray subjects living on the edges of society with compassion. The inclusion of the women's voices gives invaluable insight, not only into the lives of the patients, but also into Mark and Jacobs' experiences and the challenges they faced during their collaboration.

Review Quotes

Chronicle[s] the amassing American mental health crisis and its institutional response in starkness and alienation, yet with a humanity and integrity that came to define Mark's decades of work.--Julia Smith "Flaunt"

The addition of the recorded conversations between Mark and Jacobs and the words of the women of Ward 81 themselves add another layer of complexity, and understanding, to the entire project. When combined with the photographs both from the original book and those newly published for the first time it presents a much more in-depth view of the women suffering mental health issues on Ward 81.--Robert E. Gerhardt "Blind"