Photographs as Cultural Text: Decoding Mary Ellen Mark’s Falkland Road: Prostitutes of Bombay

Abstract

The American photographer Mary Ellen Mark, used her photographic skill to challenge the discourses concerned with prostitution.  Through her female gaze she exposed the unseen world of prostitution in India. Her photos of the prostitutes of Kamathipura, exhibited the condition of women who were used for the sexual satisfaction of men. Mary Ellen Mark gave the world a new style of photography, the style of unapologetically documenting the vulnerable sections of society.