Mary Ellen Mark

In 1983, Mary Ellen Mark traveled to Seattle, Washington, on an assignment for LIFE to document the lives of the city's homeless and runaway children and teenagers working as prostitutes and panhandlers, many of whom used drugs, ate out of dumpsters, and lived in abandoned motels. Mark explained:

'One of the reasons we chose Seattle was because it is known as "America's most livable city." Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York were well known for their street kids. By choosing America's ideal city we were making the point "If street kids exist in a city like Seattle then they can be found everywhere in America, and we are therefore facing a major social problem of runaways in this country."' (Preface to Streetwise, 1988)

The images were used in a photo-essay titled 'Streets of the Lost' with text by Cheryl McCall. The project didn't stop there — thanks to an $80,000 donation from Willie Nelson, Mark and husband Martin Bell returned to Seattle to film their 1984 documentary 'Streetwise,' which followed many of the same at-risk kids. 

Here, one of Mark's most recognizable subjects 'Tiny' (Erin Blackwell) is in her Halloween costume: a simple black dress with a pillbox hat and veil. Only fourteen years old at the time this image was taken, Mark built a lasting bond with Tiny and photographed her throughout her life. Blackwell, now in her 50s, has ten kids of her own.