In 1975 Mary Ellen Mark, an up-and-coming photojournalist, was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Gazette to work on a story about the making of the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , based on the famous novel by Ken Kesey. The film was shot at the Oregon State Hospital, a psychiatric institution. It was because Mark was the photographer on the film set that she gained access to Ward 81, the only locked hospital security ward for women. The women of neighborhood 81 were considered “dangerous to themselves or others” (Jacobs). Mark and Karen Folger Jacobs, a writer, were granted permission to stay for an extended period of time in Ward 81. They spent a total of 36 days in Ward 81 getting to know the women who resided there (goodreads.com). Mark spent his time there photographing and befriending the women who were patients there. Even though Mary Ellen Mark was known for being a photojournalist, she maintained that these images were never meant to be documentaries, but works of art. The photos Mark captures of these women are undeniably works of art. Each is beautifully composed, has just the right amount of contrast, and is sharp. Not only that, Mark used natural light to his advantage, producing stunningly lit images for such a bleak location. During his time there Mark only used 35mm cameras, wide angle and regular lenses (Bailey). Mary Ellen Mark Ward's book 81 was published in 1979 after Mark worked through 200 rolls of film and ultimately had six solo exhibitions (Stoots). The book is filled with 97 portrait photographs of the women of Ward 81 that Mark and Jacobs got to know, and some photographs of the treatments these women were subjected to. The photographs are accompanied by a short...half-sheet by Jacob...that focuses more on the daily lives of the patients rather than what the asylum does to the women, how it hid the women's real names, and how it did that his work did not have much impact on women's lives. But it still showed us a world invisible to many. He revealed disturbing practices carried out at the asylum. His photos essentially became documents of Ward 81 which no longer exists. Mark's “intimate look at life in confinement proved moving,” changing the way some viewed the mentally ill and the asylum. And they had a premature effect on the closure of Ward 81 in November 1977 (Jacobs). Many articles and essays on Ward 81 usually refer to Mark's work as documentary (Fulton). While Mark fought for art, he also left a documentary imprint on history. Ward 81 ultimately needs to be seen as both artistic and documentary.