Ward 81, Oregon State Hospital,Salem, Oregon, 1976300B-026-13A
This photo is black and white portrait shoots of a women laying down on a bed. Her face express happy. From the title we know the location is hospital, which suggesting that this women might be sick. However the emotion she is showing is full of energy and happiness which is a huge contract to what a patient should look like. This shoot captured a moment of her life, it is showing that this women is sick but she is optimistic, even her health condition does not seems good, but she looks like she has happy soul. The dark background and white sheets create contrast of light and shadow. Women in the middle grab viewers attention.
Mary Ellen Mark. Ward 81: http://www.maryellenmark.com/books/titles/ward_81/300B-026-13A_ward81_520.html
Smiling, but she is in bed for her portrait and is in an institution, this may be a brief moment when she is receiving attention, but is she happy?