Orkin/Engel Film and Photo Archive

Mary Engel has been handling the Ruth Orkin Photo Archive since the day her mother passed away on January 16, 1985. There were literally requests coming in, and it was a fly by night situation, where you just jump in and do your best. There was no one to tell me exactly what to do. There were certainly people in the industry I knew who I could consult with, but the whole process still had a big learning curve. I was also working full time at ARTnews, but took a few weeks off. I continued to work there for two years, then left to go to Showtime Networks for a 2 1/2 years, and then landed at the William Morris Agency in the training program. William Morris was an incredible boot camp/grad school for me, as it was being an agent for someone else, which is what I was doing with my mother’s work. In 1996 I got into Sundance with my film Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life, and went to the festival and was still a William Morris trainee. In my head, I was thinking “I could represent all these crazy actors, writers and directors etc”, or I could just represent my parents. I chose just handing the estate full time. It has been amazing, but also up and down. Some years are easier than others.