Rebecca Mead on Mary Ellen Mark's Photo from the Puerto Rican Day Parade

"When the photographer Mary Ellen Mark arrived in New York City, in 1966, one of her strategies for finding arresting images was to attend parades and other large gatherings, seeking out subjects not in the main flow of the action but on the periphery. Mark shot street protests, Pride marches, and Thanksgiving parades-showing how the city's diverse cultures and identities are replenished by the demonstrative joy of belonging, and how the city at large is enriched by its variety of communities."

"In this photograph, which Mark made before the start of the Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2003, her subjects-Candice Lozada, nine; Fantashia Toro, eleven-seem literally to have grown in Mark's presence. The girls, both members of the South Bronx Kids Dance Group, are shot from a low vantage, their images doubled by the reflective glass of a storefront, and they look down into Mark's lens with a cool, confident regard."

"Pedestrians are hurrying past to find their places on Fifth Avenue, but the girls have a different kind of readiness about them. With their made-up faces, their up-done hair, and their belly-baring costumes, they know that there is no chance they will miss the main event-they are the main event. The girls are wearing heeled white dance shoes that are defiantly impractical for the city streets, in striking contrast to the robust sneakers that everyone else has on."

Mary Ellen Mark sought subjects at parades and large gatherings, focusing on people at the periphery to capture arresting images. She documented protests, Pride marches, and Thanksgiving parades, portraying how demonstrative joy reinforces belonging and diversifies urban life. Mark engaged warmly with individuals, fostering trust that let each subject's uniqueness emerge. A 2003 photograph of two young members of the South Bronx Kids Dance Group shows them shot from a low vantage with storefront reflections and confident gazes. Their makeup, costumes, and impractical heeled white dance shoes declare them the central spectacle amid the city crowd.

Read at The New Yorker