What is an iconic picture? Is it a picture that other photographers worship? Or perhaps it is a timeless photo? What does it actually take to make a picture that has such an impact on viewers it becomes iconic?

Imagine this is your first assignment as a documentary photographer and you are on the streets of a city you have not been to before. You were hired to photograph a 13 year-old girl living on the streets making money as a prostitute. While going through the complete work of Mary Ellen Mark, I realized that you can make your audience connect with something they have never experienced.

Mary Ellen Mark was that kind of photography master. She not only convinced me, but she helped change the scope of modern photography. How did she do it?

Here are five lessons that will help explain the way Mary Ellen Mark photographed and the steps she took to make some of the most iconic images. You can easily follow them and adapt them for your photography.

Lesson number 1: Spend sufficient time with your subject

It seems like the golden age of social documentary photography has run its course, with fewer young photographers building on the foundations laid by such great photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson and William Eugene Smith. The reason being that it is a skill that cannot be mastered in just two days. Spending time with your subject is important. What is crucial, however, is spending sufficient time to connect with your subject.

A month on a ward of a mental hospital or forcing yourself into brothels is what it takes if you want to become the king of the hill.

She had a gift of making a connection with people. She wanted to bring awareness of people who do not have a voice. The infamous – Martin Bell

Lesson number 2: Gather a lot of material for your project

When Mary Ellen Mark liked a subject, she didn’t settle with just one photo session. For example, when photographing a circus in India, it took her six months and 18 different circuses to complete the project. That is about 18 times longer than what I thought my circus project might take. 

This leads to:

Lesson number 3: Quantity leads to quality

Mary Ellen Mark shot more than two million frames during her life. When you take into account that she was working in pictures over a span of 50 years, it is more than 100 frames every single day (on film). I cannot remember when I last tool 100 frames in a day.

This reminds me of the story I found in the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. In this story, a photography professor divides his film photography students into two groups. One group was supposed to be graded solely on the amount of work (how many images they produced) and the other only on the excellence of their work (they were supposed to provide just one photograph). What happened was that the “quantity” group produced the best photos.

Stephen King once said: “Don’t wait for the muse. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you are going. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later, he’ll start showing up.”

Lesson number 4: Be prepared for rejections

Mary Ellen Mark was not easily discouraged. In one of her projects, she was photographing prostitutes in India. Even though she was rejected many times, she returned again and again until eventually she was allowed to enter and photograph. Where there is a will, there is a way.

“If you are going to be a photographer, I think you have to be prepared for rejection if you are going to be a photographer of people.”

• Mary Ellen Mark, interview with Peter Howe, former director of photography LIFE Magazine, 2006

Lesson number 5: Adapt to the times you are living in

I sometime have the romantic notion that I will just do it the way Robert Frank did and that will get me to a similar position to him. However, what worked back in the days of Robert Frank or Cartier-Bresson will not necessarily work for you now.

Each period of time has its own specifics. Even though these days magazines are less likely to support photographic essays of infamous subjects (that is what Mary Ellen Mark used to call her subjects) that does not mean it is impossible. Yes, when looking at magazines and the stories they cover nowadays, we can see the trends shifting more towards sensations, health, diet, and celebrity journalism. When Mary Ellen Mark published her work there was no such things as crowd funding, Instagram accounts or channel memberships to gather people who want to support what you do.

When I first came to New York, it was a very, very different time for documentary magazine photography. I loved magazine documentary photography, and there was so much work to be done. It is not that way anymore. I mean, there is hardly any more documentary photography. It is more about celebrity now.

So, spend sufficient time with your subject; adapt to the times you are living in; be prepared for rejection and gather a lot of material for your project since quantity leads to quality.

If there is on extra idea we can take from Mary Ellen Mark’s work, it would be her absolute obsession with photography. She had the ability to connect with her subjects and to gain their trust. She never passed judgment on people and presented the situation how it was. I believe those are the qualities of a great documentary photographer.

It is still hard to believe that a single photographer was able to take so many iconic pictures. Even though I have only showed a fraction of her work today, you can check out this article where I write about her complete work and the book her husband put together last year. I think you will find some amazing inspiration there.

See you around