I recently bought this book by Mary Ellen Mark and have just watched the film associated with the first project; Streetwise.
The project first started in 1983 when Mark was commissioned for an article in Life magazine which documented homeless and troubled youngsters working as pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers in Seattle. Tiny (Erin) aged 13 years was a sex worker with dreams of “a horse farm, diamonds, furs and children”.
Tiny then became the main subject of Streetwise (1984), a film directed by Mark’s husband Martin Bell. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 1985. Mark released the accompanying photo book Streetwise. Mark frequently visited Seattle over the next 30 years continuing to photograph and interview her.
Tiny, Streetwise Revisited reveals these intimate portraits of Erin “Tiny” Blackwell and her 10 children along with conversations between Tiny, Mary Ellen Mark and Martin Bell. It is a raw and compelling account of her descent into drug and alcohol addiction, her troubled relationship with her mother, shattered dreams and the difficulty in breaking out of that circle of social circumstance.
Fiona Macphee 