Oct. 4: Your lens to the interne t's most powerful photographs. 📸

Oct. 4: Week in Photography

Your lens to the internet's most powerful photographs.

📸 MOST POWERFUL PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📸

Olivier Douliery / Getty Images

I don't think there is a single image that sums up this week, to be perfectly honest, but this pool photo by Olivier Douliery of Tuesday's presidential debate comes close. Not only was the behavior at the debate itself unprecedented, with both men talking over each other, Biden calling Trump racist, and Trump refusing to disavow white supremacist groups, it was also a moment when both men were yelling inside a room together without masks — which became more significant when Trump tested positive for the coronavirus three days later.

I'd like to say that this week's debate will be talked about for generations, but as our politics editor pointed out, we're in uncharted waters.

📸For Your 👀 Only:

A SNEAK PEEK AT THE BOOK OF EVERYTHING

This week, we look at The Book of Everything, which serves as a retrospective for the long career of the late photographer Mary Ellen Mark. We spoke with Martin Bell, Mark's husband and the book’s curator. Here is a sneak peek at our interview.

This book feels deeply personal — can you talk a bit about how it came together?

Mary Ellen and I met in 1980. We were married and worked together for over 30 years. I thought of making this book after Mary Ellen died on May 25,, 2015, of MDS — a blood cancer. I wanted to make a book of everything to give a sense of the extraordinary and passionate life she had lived making these images, and to show the achievement of her life’s work.

Mary Ellen Mark

Did you always intend for this book to be a type of full retrospective on Mark's work?

Yes, a retrospective. I decided the book would be chronological, allowing the reader to walk alongside Mary Ellen as she travelled the world making these beautiful and intimate images of other people’s lives — the famous and the “un-famous.”

Mary Ellen captured such a huge range of topics over the course of her career, often really difficult stories — what motivated her to keep photographing?

I think Mary Ellen described it in an interview with Swedish National TV: “I didn’t have the happiest home life or childhood, so I think that gave me a feeling of justice and passion for people that don’t have all the breaks. I think it was important to me to be free and wander the world and not have a family. I don’t have kids. I think if you don’t come from a happy home, maybe you don’t want to tie yourself down. I always wanted to be completely free. Even from the time that I was like eight years, seven years old, I remember walking home from grade school thinking, when am I going to get out of here? I’ve got to be free. So the freedom was always a major thought for me, a major plan.”

Mary Ellen Mark

Was there ever a point where she had to step away or make a different kind of work?

In 1998 Mary Ellen fell in love with the Polaroid 20x24 camera. It was a radical departure from shooting with a Leica 35 mm camera. This massive camera was a beast on wheels. It came with a crew and required a massive amount of lighting. This change brought new challenges and a whole new look to her images.

If there was an Olympic gold medal for shopping, then Mary Ellen would have been a world champion. In every city she visited around the world, she cultivated antique shop owners to find her specific items. Also, fabric merchants, silversmiths, toy makers and on and on. She accumulated a mountain of stuff that was crated and shipped back to her loft in New York. It was her way of unwinding from the often extreme stories she was working on. I swear the floor in the loft tipped under the weight of a massive rocking pig she brought back from India.

Do you have a favorite image of Mary Ellen? What is your favorite project of hers?

That is an unfair question. It’s like asking a parent do you have a favorite child — you would never say even if true. I see Mary Ellen in all her photographs. All her choices for the stories she found are about a personal relationship with the subject of the story. They were invariably stories from the edge — with people you might walk by and not notice. The un-famous, she called them. She brought them to us. From her first images to the last she was true.

Mary Ellen Mark

📸THE WEEK'S PHOTO STORIES FROM BUZZFEED NEWS 📸

This week, it is the one year anniversary of JPG! It's been quite a year, and truly an honor to bring photography to your inboxes each week, through the good and the bad.

We're in unprecedented times, which was put in stark relief this week, but we still found some moments of joy.

Find more of the week's best photo stories here.

A LOOK AT ALL THE PLACES THAT TRUMP WENT BEFORE TESTING POSITIVE FOR THE CORONAVIRUS

Alex Brandon / AP Images

THESE PHOTOS PERFECTLY CAPTURE THE PUNK ROCK SIDE OF TOKYO

Tatsuo Suzuki

📸SOME HOPE 📸

Robert F. Bukaty / AP Photo

It's fall! Time to cozy up and enjoy the leaves

"That's it from us this time — see you next week!" —Kate

📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by the News Photo team. Gabriel Sanchez is the photo essay editor based in New York and loves cats. Kate Bubacz is the photo director based in New York and loves dogs. You can always reach us here.
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