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UNDRABORN / EXTRAORDINARY CHILD: PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY ELLEN MARK - SIGNED PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER
(MARK, MARY ELLEN). Mark, Mary Ellen, Ivar Brynjolfsson & Einar Falur Ingolfsson. Introduction by Margret Hallgrimsdottir. Reykjavik, ICELAND: The National Museum of Iceland, 2007. First Edition. Large 4to. Printed Self-Wrappers. Photography Monograph. Fine.. 176pp, profusely illustrated in duotone and color. Text in English and Icelandic. "In the fall of 2006 The National Museum of Iceland arranged to collaborate with Mary Ellen Mark to photograph the lives of disabled children in Iceland. The result of this was the exhibition "Extraordinary Child", and its accompanying catalogue. These photographs were taken at Öskjuhlíðarskóli and Safamýrarskóli schools and the Lyngás centre for the disabled in the fall and winter of 2006-2007. At the same time as Mary Ellen Mark was photographing, her husband, renowned documentary filmmaker Martin Bell, made a film about the life of Alexander Viðar Pálsson - a pupil at Öskjuhlíðarskóli - entitled Alexander. The exhibition and film allow us to face these children and their circumstances with the help of the lens. At the same time we are also directing our gaze at our own perceptions and feelings. In this exhibition we see the reality of disabled children in our contemporary society. We sense how extraordinary these children, like all children, are. Deeply moving, poignant, sad and joyous, these photographs take us into a reality that adjoins our own, but is very seldom seen. In addition to Mark's work, this volume contains fifteen photographs of the empty schools by renowned Icelandic photographer Ivar Brynjolfsson as well as twenty paintings by the children". A brand new, most handsome example of this uncommon item (cited on page 243 of Fred Ritchin and Carole Naggar's "Magnum Photobook: A Catalogue Raisonné") additionally bearing the BOLDLY SIGNED AND DATED PRESENTATION "For... - / - With Admiration - / Fondly / 2007 / Mary Ellen Mark" in the year of publication in black ink on the half title page. Inventory Number: 026047