03/27/2026
My review of photographer Mary Ellen Mark's profound exhibition at UMBC features photos of women living in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon in 1975. This is the same place where "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" was filmed, and Mark worked on the production. Afterwards, she spent 37 days on Ward 81, the only maximum-security unit for women in the state at the time. This article offers a detailed look into the show, Mark, and other issues involved in such journalistic projects.
Note: you can now also listen to an audio version of these articles on BmoreArt! Just click the audio read at the top of the article. Though here, you will definitely want to look at the imagery as well.
In the iconic photograph, a young woman lies in a deep white ceramic bathtub, only her face visible above the soapy water. She is framed like a saint. Wet, dark hair fans out behind her, flowing over the back of the tub. She gazes at the viewer with wide eyes, her oval girlish face pensive […]
