By Ester Khachatryan
Caroline Cuse â09 entered a gallery packed with about 30 people celebrating the opening of prominent American photographer Mary Ellen Mark on Dec. 4 at the Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
Cuse received an invitation to the exhibition from Mark, who also extended the invitation to Harvard-Westlake photography students and teachers to her exhibition.
The exhibition “Seen Behind the Scenes,” features 40 years of capturing candid photographs of prominent film directors and actors during unguarded moments on the movie set.
Mark attended the opening and signed her latest book that featured the photographs.
“I am really inspired by her work, and I find it daring and beautiful,” Cuse said. “Her photos never fail to be impressive.”
Filmmakers depicted in Markâs photographs include directors Federico Fellini giving instructions on the set of his 1969 movie “Satyricon” and Francis Ford Coppola directing “Apocalypse Now” in the Philippines.
Photographs of actors Gregory Peck seated with two children in Old Gringo and Nicole Kidman in “Fur” are also featured at the exhibition.
Mark began her affiliation with Harvard-Westlake last year when she attended the 2008 prom.
At that prom, she took pictures of selected couples for a book she has been working on for the past six years.
At the time, Mark invited photography students to work as interns for her for the evening.
Cuse, along with other students, was selected to intern and helped her choose the couples that will be featured in her upcoming book.
