Mary Ellen Mark's "Prom' at the Art Museum

I asked my friend Feathers if she wanted to go with me to the Art Museum to see "Prom," a display of Mary Ellen Mark's photos of kids on their big night out.

Mary Ellen Mark is one of the most acclaimed photographers working today. Seventeen books of her work have been published. Her photos hang in museums around the world.

But Feathers wasn't interested. "The prom," she advised me, "is an absurd vestige of a '50s patriarchal society. You get all dressed up hoping other people will look at you, then end the night getting groped by some guy you'll never see again. Why would anyone want to replicate this ridiculous ritual?"

I took that as a "maybe" and convinced her to go. After Feathers viewed the museum's sampling of 41 photographs, leafed through the gallery copy of the complete collection and watched the accompanying film, she said she was glad she came.

"This isn't the middle-class cliché I was talking about," Feathers explained. "She has taken the banality of this rite of passage and used it to explore these kids' intimate feelings about who they are and whom they want to be."

Singular moment

"Prom" consists of shots taken from 2006 to 2009, in 13 high schools across the U.S., including Mark's own alma mater, Cheltenham High in Wyncote, just outside Philadelphia. Whether you went to your high school prom or not, you'll appreciate how Mark captures the magic of that singular moment in American culture when we balance on the fulcrum between youth and adulthood.

Mark uses the Polaroid 20 x 40-inch Land Camera"“ six feet tall and weighing 240 pounds. Like the standard-size Polaroid cameras, it provides no negatives. The film itself becomes the print, producing an image with a distinctive, raw detail.

Mark's subjects run the gamut from movie star attractive to Diane Arbus weird. Along with mixed-gender couples one finds gays, lesbians and physically and mentally challenged kids. Several are in wheelchairs. Two or three of the girls are pregnant. A startling number of them are fat.

Socio-economic fashion-levels abound: peek-a-boo cutouts reveal midriffs and cleavage; tattoos and piercings emerge from assorted body parts; zebra stripes and prizefighter robes appear. The zoot suit seems to have enjoyed a recrudescence in Newark.

Tonight's objective

Among my favorites:

O Lucky Man: Zack and Katie and Mary, Los Angeles. Most of the subjects look at the camera with the expressionless face of the classic portrait. Not Zack, who sports a gorgeous blonde on each arm and a won-the-lottery grin on his face. Long-term goal: "True love." Tonight's objective: "For us not to sleep in our own beds."

Most Understated: Max and Elisabeth, Los Angeles. After so many extravagant look-at-me costumes, this couple's simple elegance— he in standard suit and tie, she in simple white chemise— wins the not-out-to-impress-anyone award. Most impressive.

Most Touching: Ashley, New York City. Each year Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center throws a prom for the patients in its pediatric unit. Ashley, totally bald and strikingly lovely, talks about getting ready: "I put on my fake eyelashes and draw on my eyebrows." Impossible not to be moved by her.

Virtual strangers

The 33-minute film by Mark's husband, filmmaker Martin Bell, is an essential part of the show. You get to see what's behind those pretty— and not so pretty— faces. Too bad the sound quality in the gallery made it difficult to decipher. Feathers and I watched the copy that was projected in the gift shop"“ where it was easier to hear.

Some of Mark's couples were virtual strangers to each other: "She knows my sister and I needed somebody." "I chose him 'cause I like the way he dresses and I like his physique." But others reveal their love with tearful confessions to their partners.

They also talk about their love for their parents and their plans for the future…or lack of them: "I never want to mature," says Mohawk-Thomas. "I want to play hacky sack and watch cartoons for the rest of my life."

"Prom," says Goth-chic Tim of Austin, Texas, "is just an excuse to get fucked up, drunk, drugs, have a good time."

Oh, the humanity. Oh, yoot.

Feathers ended up liking Mark's work so much that she is considering commissioning a portrait. Too bad Mark's sittings start at $20,000.